Troy Davis The Supreme Court ordered hearing for Georgia death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis will take place on Wednesday, June 23. In August, the nation’s highest court ordered a federal district court in Georgia to “receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes his innocence.”

Davis was convicted for the 1989 killing of a white police officer. Since then, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, and there is no physical evidence tying him to the crime scene.

In 2001, on Davis’ behalf, twenty-one exculpatory affidavits were submitted to a federal court in Georgia. These affidavits contained recantations from all but two of the prosecution eyewitnesses, the testimony of another previously undiscovered eyewitness and others with information bearing on the crime—all strong evidence suggesting Davis was not the gunman and is, in fact, innocent of the crimes for which he was sentenced to death.

Support for Davis has poured in from around the U.S., and the world. Former President Jimmy Carter, Actor and activist Harry Belafonte, Rev. Al Sharpton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pope Benedict, XVI have all spoken out on his behalf.