Homeless Man's Beating; Troy Davis Set To Die Tonight; Little Hope Left For Troy Davis
KAYE: In just over five hours from now, two men in two different states are set to die by lethal injection. Both cases have drown the national spotlight. And both cases do have racial overtones. But the stories and the men couldn't be further apart. At 6:00 local time, Texas will execute this man, Lawrence Brewer. He's one of the three men convicted of chaining a black man, James Byrd, behind a pickup truck and dragging him to death 13 years ago. You'd be hard pressed to find a single soul in the town of Jasper, Texas, today, arguing against the execution. In fact, the town of 7,300 is more than ready to put the crime behind them. The same cannot be said for this man, Troy Davis. He's set to die tonight in Georgia at 7:00 Eastern Time. Davis was convicted of killing off duty police officer Mark MacPhail 22 years ago. A crime he maintains he did not commit. Despite a global campaign, the states board of pardons and paroles today rejected a request to reconsider yesterday's decision denying Davis clemency. CNN's David Mattingly joins us now. David, is there any hope left for Troy Davis at this hour?</s>DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): They felt like that they had their last best shot yesterday with the pardons and parole board. And that board came back and refused to stop this execution. They asked it to reconsider. And today the board came back again and said, no, we're not going to stop this execution. They also asked to be able to conduct a polygraph test today in prison so that he could prove his innocence by a polygraph test. Well, the prison system has denied that request. They do have a new sort of a legal hail Mary going on right now. Some briefs filed within a court, a state court here in Georgia, complaining about issues regarding ballistics among other things. But at this late hour, this is something that the court may or may not take up and we're waiting to find out what is decided there. But, this has gone through dozens of courts over the last 20 years. There have been very few issues that have not been explored multiple times throughout this. And, again, they thought their last, best chance to avoid this execution was with the pardons and parole board. Now that board would have been not bound by judicial restraints. They would have been subject to a lot of maybe, perhaps, public and political pressure and they brought all of that to bear. And this board did not change the execution.</s>KAYE: And I know, David, that you spoke with the former prosecutor in this case. I mean what does he say about all of those who are so high profile, including former President Jimmy Carter, even the pope who have come out questioning this execution?</s>MATTINGLY: Well, he talked about the high profile people who have supported this case. And he says that they've put their reputations on the line and that they've become sort of caught up in a public relations campaign, where the facts in the public relations campaign don't match the vetting that was done by the court system. And he says -- he calls it fuzzy thinking on the part of people like President Carter who believe that perhaps this should be commuted to life in prison instead of the death penalty. He says that this case is the result of disciplined thinking that was handled throughout the courts over the last 20 years and at every turn this case has gone, sided with the original prosecution and the original conviction.</s>KAYE: All right, David Mattingly joining us on the phone there. David, appreciate that. Thank you very much. Well, as you know, some of the witnesses in this case have recanted their story. And coming up, I'm going to talk with a witness in the case who did not recant her story. You're not going to want to miss this exclusive interview. It divided survivors and families of the nearly 3,000 people who died on 9/11. Plans to build an Islamic center and mosque near the World Trade Center site. Well, today, it opens its doors and we'll speak to the developer next.