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The only witnesses who fully recanted were two who recanted by affadavit but then were not put forward to offer live testimony by Davis at the evidentiary hearing, most likely because their recantations were written by lawyers and wouldn’t hold up under cross-examination. The other was a jailhouse snitch whose original testimony at trial didn’t match the large number of eyewitnesses who testified. In other words, he was lying at trial, so his recantation may be real, but it doesn’t matter because he wasn’t believable in the first place. Here are the people who “recanted”:

Antoine Williams - never said that his statements to police were false, but simply said he couldn’t remember what he said. He also claimed that he was pressured to say that Davis was the shooter, but at the evidentiary hearing, he backed off that claim and said nobody pressured him to say anything. He also said that his memory would have been better closer in time to the crime.

Kevin McQueen - the jailhouse snitch

Jeffery Sapp - a friend of the defendant. He recanted his prior testimony that Davis had confessed to him, but the judge found him not to be credible. For instance, he claimed not to know what RAH stood for, although long ago he had testified that it stood for Rough As Hell.

Darrell Collins - he recanted but did not recant his identification of Davis as the man in the white shirt. Because all the witnesses consistently agreed that the man in the white shirt was the shooter, the judge took this as a confirmation of Davis’ guilt. Plus, Collins never said that Davis was the shooter, and the judge made the point that if Collins’ testimony were truly coerced as he claimed, then surely he would have been coerced to claim Davis was the shooter.

Harriett Murray - recanted in an unnotarized affadavit, begrudgingly obtained, where she wouldn’t even wait for a notary to be found to swear to her affadavit. This recantation was only on a minor point - that she now thinks that the person who argued with Mr. Young was the one who slapped him and shot the officer. At trial, the person arguing with Young was a different person than the one who slapped him and shot McPhail. Oh, and Murray died before the evidentiary hearing, so she couldn’t testify in person. The judge made an important point - if she had any idea that her affadavit would result in an innocent man being released, she surely would have allowed them to get a notary. The judge took that to be an indication that she wasn’t really recanting at all in her identification of Davis as the shooter.

Dorothy Ferrell - completely recanted by affadavit, but Davis did not call her to testify at the evidentiary hearing despite the fact that she was there and waiting to be called. Because she had no connections to Davis at all, the judge actually said that she “should have been” his “star witness” if he’d called her to the stand. That raises questions about why she was not called to the stand.

Larry Young - the man who was assaulted that led to the shooting. He claimed that his testimony at trial was coerced. Again, his affadavit of recantation held little value, in the judge’s mind, because he was available to testify at the evidentiary hearing and was not called as a witness.

The overwhelming evidence is that Davis was the shooter, and the facts at the trial made that very clear. The recantations and other “evidence” offered by Davis do not exonerate him.

***In this particular case, several witness have recanted, and there’s not any substantial forensic evidence. I think they may have executed an innocent person.***

Have you not read any of the actual trial documents?

Physical evidence? How about his gun was used to shoot 2 people (the police officer being one) and both shootings were linked by physical evidence, the shell casings at both scenes were forensically proven to have been fired by the same gun.

Or how about Davis’s clothing being found covered in the officer’s blood? That was entered into evidence in the trial but disallowed because when Dais was arrested, the police searched the rest of his house, but didn’t have a search warrant.

There weren’t “9” witnesses, there were over 30, and more than a few knew Davis personally.

Also, the jury was so divided that they took all of 2 hours to come back with a guilty verdict. Nearly a record time for a death penalty trial.

These records are public information. What the news, politicians, and hollywierds are spouting are lies based on fantasy.

I've read all the history. The many, many appeals over the years.

In 2010 the defense was granted a hearing to prove all of the recants, etc. The basic was that a few of the many witnesses had recanted, but almost all of them were shown to be untrustworty and uncredible in the recants.

The defense had ample opportunity to call certain witnesses, particularly the man that two of the recants now claimed was the killer...so he could be examined. but the defense did not do it. They said they had tried to serve papers on him the day before, but they had known about the hearing and this individual for months.

The judge ruled against the defense because the recants were not crdible and because the defense failed to call the principle witness they were trying to implicate.

That Judge's decision was upheld on several appeals.

It is clear that there has been a rigorous emotional campaign launched regarding this man. Many liberal groups and quite a few noted individuals have read the material produced by those who wanted to see Davis get a new trial. But the prosecuting attorney nailed it when he indicated that none of those "well known people," had come to him and asked to review the actual evidence and full trial transcripts.

Emotions cannot be the foundation for justice. none of that emotional content changed the evidence in the case. Particulalry the fact that casings from the shooting scene where the officer was killed, matched the casings where Davis was accused of shooting another man earlier in the evening. Davis was at both places.

That evidence...and a lot more...was compelling to a jury of seven blacks and five whites, who found him guilty of the murder. it has remained compelling over they years to the appealte courts, despite the recants of a few. Even though they never found the murder weapon, they did find those casings and they were judged and rule to have been fired from the same gun. Davis was at both scenes that night. This man received absolutely every benefit of our system...every appeal and actipon and procedure imaginable. The fact that in all of that...including a rehearing on the evidence...he was unable to prevail indicates that the state had it right from the beginning.