WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A human rights group is urging Georgia to halt the impending execution of an inmate whose case they allege has troubling similarities to that of Troy Davis.
Marcus Ray Johnson will die at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the same Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison where Troy Davis was executed last month unless Amnesty International is successful in its request for clemency from Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles, the human rights group said Monday.
Johnson's attorneys argue the prosecution's case was built on testimony by individuals who allegedly did not witness the 1994 stabbing death of Angela Sizemore but only placed Johnson with Sizemore hours before the killing.
Amnesty International argues, as in the Davis case, there is no physical evidence connecting Johnson to the stabbing and contends there is concern about pieces of evidence having been destroyed on court order.
After Albany police Friday discovered a box containing biological evidence possibly allowing for DNA testing, Johnson's attorneys filed "an extraordinary motion" for a new trial based on the new evidence.
Amnesty International said a DNA expert is expected to testify before the Board of Pardons and Paroles concerning the new evidence and how the DNA tests could identify the perpetrator. They say a pathologist will testify a pocket knife the prosecution presented at trial as the murder weapon did not test positive for blood and did not match the wounds.
Laura Moye, director of Amnesty International's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, said the similarities between the Johnson and Davis cases are troubling.
"We are concerned that similar issues in the Troy Davis case are present here: unreliable eyewitness testimony and a lack of physical evidence," she said. "We urge the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to prevent this execution from proceeding, and we urge Georgia lawmakers to repeal the death penalty in light of the many shocking problems riddling the death penalty system."
