Judge Moves Up Troy Davis Hearing

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - A federal judge has changed the date of a hearing for Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis, who says he’s innocent of the 1989 slaying of a Savannah police officer.

U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore rescheduled the hearing for June 23. The judge had originally set the date for a week later, but the Georgia attorney general’s office said its lead attorney had a schedule conflict that day.

The hearing in Savannah will allow Davis’ lawyers to present evidence they say proves Davis was wrongly convicted of slaying Mark MacPhail. The judge ordered the schedule change Friday.

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a hearing on Davis’ innocence claim last August. The move was extraordinary, as death penalty appeals normally focus on process and procedure.