Students and human rights activists held a candlelit vigil outside the US Consulate on Regent Terrace in protest at Troy Davis’ scheduled execution on Wednesday night.

The vigil took place in the hours leading up to the execution and was held in support of the Too much Doubt Campaign, organised by Amnesty International.

The protesters handed out candles and held signs adorned with personal messages about Davis’ execution. The police arrived to ask them to move away from the entrance of the Consulate and the crowd remained outside until the news of the reprieve, when they believed he would be granted another stay of execution.

Three hours later, however, the Supreme Court denied the stay of execution and Troy Davis was executed by lethal injection.

The vigil in Edinburgh was one of several held around the world for Davis who was arrested and convicted for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, after witnesses positively identified him as the man who shot the police officer twice with a 38 calibre pistol.

Davis pled non-guilty in his trial where a grand jury convicted him for murder on the ballistics evidence and the statement of four eyewitness testimonies and five consequential witnesses.

n the two decades following his conviction Davis exhausted the appeal system of the Georgia Supreme Court, continuing to insist his innocence. During this time, seven of the witnesses recanted the statements that convicted him, claiming they had been pressurised by the police.

No physical or forensic evidence was retrieved from the scene except the bullets and shell-casings, which were used to form the ballistics report against Davis by linking him to another shooting that occurred earlier the same night.

The only forensic evidence was barred from the prosecution as the judge ruled that the pair of shorts taken from Davis’ home had been obtained without a search warrant and Davis’ mother had been forced to allow the police into her home.The prosecution alleged that Davis had quarrelled with and shot Michael Cooper, assaulted homeless man Larry Young, before fatally shooting MacPhail. Cooper could not positively identify Davis as his shooter, though admitted to having argued with him.

The US Embassy in London defended the execution. A spokesperson said:“The U.S. Consulate General Edinburgh is aware that a vigil led by Amnesty International took place on September 21. In the U.S., elected governments at the federal and state levels have the power to make decisions regarding the use of the death penalty.

"The U.S. judicial system provides an exhaustive set of protections to ensure that the death penalty is not applied in an arbitrary, capricious or discriminatory manner.”