Music News
Keane drummer meets death row inmate
Sunday 27 September 2009
Hughes visited Troy Davis in prison in the US state of Georgia as part of an Amnesty International delegation.
He said the meeting with the 40-year-old, who has been on death row since 1991, was 'genuinely inspiring'.
Davis, who was jailed for the 1989 killing of police officer Mark Allen MacPhail, is being held in the Diagnostic and Classification Prison, in Jackson.
Campaigners fighting for his conviction to be overturned say authorities failed to produce a murder weapon or any physical evidence linking Davis to the crime.
Hughes, 34, made the visit as part of a week-long trip in the US meeting officials and campaigners on Davis' case.
He said he was inspired to hear how Davis 'has been battling to have vital evidence heard that could see him released an innocent man, and to see first-hand how his amazing, quiet strength is getting him through this terrifying ordeal'.
The drummer was joined by Amnesty campaigner Kim Manning-Cooper and Alistair Carmichael MP, chair of the UK parliamentary group for the abolition of the death penalty.
Last year Davis came within two hours of execution but last month the US Supreme Court ruled that he should be allowed a new hearing.
Seven of the nine witnesses against him later recanted or changed initial testimonies in sworn affidavits. Davis has always protested his innocence.
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