In the pre-dawn hours of August 19, 1989, in Savannah, Georgia, 27-year-old Mark Allen MacPhail was shot and killed after intervening in a parking-lot assault at a Burger King adjacent to the Greyhound bus station where he was working off-duty security. A former U.S. Army Ranger and a Savannah Police Department officer of three years, MacPhail was hit as he rushed to help a homeless man named Larry Young; a second shot was fired as he lay on the ground. He was a husband and father to a young daughter and an infant son.

Investigators identified Troy Anthony Davis as a suspect; Davis surrendered on August 23, 1989, and was indicted by a Chatham County grand jury on November 15, 1989. At trial in August 1991 seven witnesses identified Davis as the shooter and two witnesses testified that Davis had confessed to them. Ballistic testing linked the bullets in MacPhail’s case to another shooting with which Davis was charged, although the murder weapon was never recovered. A jury convicted Davis of malice murder, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, and related charges on August 28, 1991, and recommended the death penalty two days later.

Several eyewitnesses later recanted or changed their accounts, with some saying they had been coerced. The case generated extensive legal appeals and reviews that continued after the trial. Does anyone have information about that August 1989 scene or about witnesses who came forward during the trial?