US: Prisoner makes final appeal before execution

The pardons board has previously rejected Davis's appeal for clemency

The US death row inmate Troy Davis has made a final bid for clemency two days before his scheduled execution for the 1989 killing of an off-duty policeman.

The 42-year-old is due to face a lethal injection on Wednesday evening.

Over one million people worldwide have signed petitions for clemency in his case, because seven of the nine witnesses who testified against him in his trial in 1991 have since recanted or changed their testimony. Others, who did not testify, have said another man at the scene admitted to the shooting. Moreover, no murder weapon was ever found and no DNA evidence or fingerprints conclusively linked Davis to the shooting.

Pope Benedict XVI, former US President Jimmy Carter and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton are among those who have backed Davis, who has always maintained he is innocent.

R.S.

for further information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14981064