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Robert W. Ray, a partner in Pryor Cashman’s Litigation Group, joined 26 other former federal prosecutors and members of the judiciary in filing an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in support of death row inmate Troy Davis’s direct application to the Justices for a writ of habeas corpus.

Davis argued that new and recent evidence establishes that he is actually innocent of the murder of a police officer nearly 20 years ago. In its August 17th decision, In Re Troy Anthony Davis, 557 U.S. __ (2009), the Supreme Court took the highly unusual step of granting the writ and ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to hold a hearing as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes petitioner’s actual innocence. This is the first time in nearly 50 years that the Supreme Court has granted such a writ on direct application to the Court.

To read the decision, please click here.