*One of Atlanta’s prominent religious leaders took to the pulpit Sunday and argued that that the battle against the death penalty should not die with last week’s execution of convicted cop killer Troy Davis, says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Both were absent, he said, when the state executed Davis Wednesday for the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah.

“I’m afraid the word justice has fallen out of the American Christian lexicon,” Warnock said. “That’s how people can worship God on Sunday and break out in applause the next week when they hear how many people have been executed.”

Davis’ case had been reviewed by both state and federal courts for fairness for 20 years. The U.S. Supreme Court had taken the extraordinary step of assigning U.S. District Judge William T. Moore to scrutinize the witness testimony to determine whether it raised substantial questions about Davis’ guilt. Moore concluded unequivocally in a 174-page ruling that it did not.

“Mr. Davis vastly overstates the value of his evidence of innocence,” Moore wrote.

Warnock said he believed that Davis was innocent. But even if Davis were not, the reverend said the execution did not allow for mercy, which the Board of Pardons and Paroles also denied.

“Mercy reaches beyond the limit of justice,” Warnock said. “Where the law was limited, the Board could have done what was right. They did not do their job.”

Church member Brenda Davenport agreed, noting that no consideration was given for whether Davis was a different man this week than the man convicted of the crime.

Read more at the Atlantic Journal Constitution.

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