His request for a new trial rejected Monday, condemned cop killer Troy Anthony Davis probably will have his fate decided by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.

The state Supreme Court, which turned down Davis's appeal on a 4-3 vote, said the recantations of seven witnesses who testified against him were not enough to win him a new trial.

File photo (ENLARGE)

Troy Davis

THE STORY SO FAR Previously: In 1991, Troy Davis is sentenced to die for the murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. The latest: The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday rejects Davis' request for a new trial. What's next: Davis' lawyers, after asking the state court to reconsider and then appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, will focus their attention on the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. RELATED: • Court found recantations didn't indicate Davis not guilty • More metro and state news

"We simply cannot disregard the jury's verdict in this case," wrote Justice Harold Melton, who was joined by Justices George Carley, Harris Hines and Hugh Thompson.

Most of the witnesses who recanted "have merely stated they now do not feel able to identify the shooter," Melton said. He added that the majority would not ignore the trial testimony, "and, in fact, we favor that original testimony over the new."

Davis' lawyers are expected to ask the state Supreme Court to reconsider and then appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If those bids are rejected, the case would head back to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, which in July granted Davis a 90-day stay just 23 hours before he was to be executed.

At that time, the board said it delayed the execution because it was troubled by questions about Davis' guilt.

In a statement released Monday, the board said it again would consider Davis' petition for clemency but did not anticipate making a decision "in the near future." The board noted that a de facto moratorium on executions is in effect nationwide while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge to lethal injection.

Davis' claims of innocence attracted worldwide attention, including a request from Pope Benedict XVI that Davis be resentenced to life in prison without parole. Davis sits on death row for the 1989 murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot.

Anneliese MacPhail, mother of the slain officer, said Monday she had worried all night but felt better after learning the outcome.

"I wonder, what do all those witnesses remember after 18 years?" MacPhail asked. "There is no new evidence. No mother should go through what I have been through."

Chatham County District Attorney Spencer Lawton applauded the decision. "This is a demonstration of the kind of intelligent result one gets when legal matters are decided in the courts and not in emotion-driven, curb-side circuses organized by advocates," Lawton said.

He added that he hoped Davis' lawyers "will see fit to provide the Pope with a copy of the opinion."

Testimony at Davis' 1991 trial formed the core of the prosecution's case. Physical evidence was scant: no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no DNA.

"In this case, nearly every witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her ability to do so reliably," Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in dissent. Others have stated that Sylvester "Redd" Coles later confessed to being the shooter, and two witnesses now say Coles possessed a gun immediately after the murder — contrary to what Coles said at trial, Sears said.

Sears agreed with the majority that recantation testimony is inherently suspect. But she also said the court has now created a precedent that makes it all but impossible for recantation testimony to be considered in extraordinary motions for new trial.

"If recantation testimony, either alone or supported by other evidence, shows convincingly that prior trial testimony was false, it simply defies all logic and morality to hold that it must be disregarded categorically," Sears wrote. She said the new testimony, if found credible, could lead a new jury to find reasonable doubt of Davis' guilt, or enough residual doubt to lead a jury to impose a sentence other than death.

Sears, joined in dissent by Justices Carol Hunstein and Robert Benham, said a judge should conduct a hearing to weigh the new evidence.

During an afternoon news conference on the steps of the Capital, Davis' sister, Martina Correia, said she was stunned by the court's opinion.

"We are here today because nothing can shake our faith," Correia said, breaking down during her statement. "We have had years of disappointment before, but we still have fight in us. We are not giving up."

Jared Feuer, Amnesty International USA's Southern regional director, expressed astonishment that the judicial system "has failed at every turn to consider the new evidence pointing to Troy Davis' innocence." The state parole board, Feuer said, should "fulfill its role as the failsafe of justice to stop the state from taking the life of a man who well may be innocent."

Davis' lawyers have argued their client was convicted in a case of mistaken identity. Coles, who was at the scene at the time of the murder, is the real killer, defense attorneys have argued in their motions to the court. Coles declined to comment last year to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution when asked about the case.

Coles was the first person to go to police and finger Davis as the suspect. He is one of two trial witnesses who have not recanted their testimony. The other, Stephen Sanders, first told police he could not identify the gunman. But at trial, Sanders testified he saw Davis stand over MacPhail and fire the fatal shots.