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Troy Davis, executed on his conviction for killing Police Officer Mark MacPhail, fought and maintained his innocence until his last breath.
Davis was still optimistic on the last day of his life because his death warrants had been stayed thrice since 2007, said Jason Ewart, a defense attorney who witnessed the execution.
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"I think he had high faith that he was going to be able to avoid this one," Ewart told Reuters.
On Thursday, Davis' attorneys described the Georgia inmate's last hours after 20 years in prison for a crime he always denied.
The night of the execution saw hundreds of people demonstrating outside the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, where the execution was originally scheduled for 7 p.m. and then delayed for four hours while waiting for the final ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Davis, who was 19 when the 27-year-old MacPhail was killed, told the slain police officer's relatives from the death chamber that he was innocent.
"I am innocent. The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun. All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth," the 42-year-old said, according to Sydney Morning Herald.
Davis last met with his family around 3 p.m. but then was allowed to talk to them on phone until around 6:40 p.m., said lawyer Danielle Garten, who acted as intermediary during the call, according to a Reuters report.
Davis had maintained a supportive relationship with his family despite being on death row and at the end of the final call they gathered round and yelled "I love you" into the phone, Garten said.
Davis made his final call to his lawyers.
Witnessing the execution in the death chamber were Davis' family, the MacPhail family, lawyers and journalists.
Ewart described the 15-minute execution as much more dramatic than he had expected.
"He was on display and the whole thing was set up for the audience, and that's what disturbs me now. He was not on a flat gurney. It's a gurney that was tilted toward a giant picture window with a spotlight on him," he said.
The lethal injection was given at 10:53 p.m. and Davis was declared dead 15 minutes later, at 11:08 p.m., after the Supreme Court rejected an eleventh-hour request for a stay.
