The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for Georgia to set an execution date for Troy Davis.

Davis' case has sparked international condemnation.

Amnesty International is among the groups that doubt Davis killed Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.

A jury convicted Davis of the crime.

But subsequent witness recantations sparked an unusual circumstance.

The US Supreme Court -- in an extraordinarily rare decision -- ordered a Savannah federal court to re-examine the case.

But with those appeals now going against him, Amnesty's Laura Moye now says, there's one more stop for Davis.

"We hope the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles will weigh in here," Moye says. "The doubts about his guilt have not been resolved."

Local authorities, however, consider Davis the killer.

MacPhail's son says, while anything can happen in the case, he's optimistic the sentence will be carried out this year.

"We're getting once again close to another execution date," MacPhail says. "We stay hopefully optimistic that justice will finally be served."

A problem with the state's supply of lethal drugs could delay the execution.

Federal regulators this month seized Georgia's stockpile of sodium thiopental, amid questions about how the state obtained it.

Tags: U.S. Supreme Court, Savannah, Troy Davis, death row inmate, execution