Troy Davis update: Supreme court denies stay; Davis executed at 11:08pm ET.

Update on a post from earlier this evening: The US Supreme Court has denied Troy Davis a stay of execution.

The official statement, in its entirety [PDF], reads:

The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied.

The Georgia death row inmate, in a high-profile case that led to renewed worldwide debate over the death penalty, is expected to be killed by lethal injection by 11pm Eastern US Time.

"This case has really revealed to the world that we cannot continue with this system," Amnesty International USA Executive Director Larry Cox said just now. "I think people know in their hearts that this is shameful."

Terry Moran, who covers the Supreme Court for ABC News: "Another man confessed. Seven eyewitnesses recanted. Police accused of coercing witnesses. No DNA. No murder weapon. Justice?"

Former FBI Director William S. Sessions on this case: "When it comes to the sentence of death, there should be no room for doubt."

Update, 11:13pm ET: The execution began at 10:53pm. Troy Davis was reported dead at 11:08PM ET. Media witnesses say that he refused a final meal; he refused a final prayer; he did not take an anti-convulsive, anti-anxiety, hypnotic drug called Ativan that was offered to him to ease the procedure. As is customary with prisoner executions in the United States, his death certificate will be marked "homicide."

The final words of Troy Davis at his execution, according to media witnesses:

The incident that took place that night was not my fault. I did not have a gun. [Addressing the victim's family] I did not personally kill your son, father, brother; I am innocent. Look deeper in this case, so you can find the truth. To the people who are about to take my life: May God have mercy on your soul. May God bless your soul.

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Minecraft “Adventure Update” trailer released

The forthcoming 1.8 "Adventure Update" of Minecraft adds randomly-generated villages, a more refined control system and game mechanics, larger and more realistic ocean and mountain biomes, and the Endermen.

If you never look directly at Endermen, shadowy creatures with long and narrow limbs, they don't even notice you. But once you do, they turn and stand and look at you, too. As long as you're looking directly at Endermen, they'll stay put and you'll stay safe. "As soon as you look away," creator Notch writes, "they will run (very fast) towards you."

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Wikileaks: Guardian journalist negligently published password to unredacted cables (Update: Guardian denies)

Wikileaks, facing criticism after unredacted versions of diplomatic cables escaped into the wild, today accused a Guardian journalist of negligently publishing the password required to decrypt them.

A Guardian journalist has negligently disclosed top secret WikiLeaks’ decryption passwords to hundreds of thousands of unredacted unpublished US diplomatic cables.

Knowledge of the Guardian disclosure has spread privately over several months but reached critical mass last week. The unpublished WikiLeaks’ material includes over 100,000 classified unredacted cables that were being analyzed, in parts, by over 50 media and human rights organizations from around the world.

For the past month WikiLeaks has been in the unenviable position of not being able to comment on what has happened, since to do so would be to draw attention to the decryption passwords in the Guardian book. Now that the connection has been made public by others we can explain what happened and what we intend to do.

Wikileaks also says it is in touch with the U.S. State Department and will be taking legal action.

UPDATE: The Guardian, in a story about the availability of the unredacted cables, denies that its journalist disclosed the password. [Thanks, Douglas!]

But further down in the story it seems to admit it, instead blaming Wikileaks for letting it do so:

"Our book about WikiLeaks was published last February. It contained a password, but no details of the location of the files, and we were told it was a temporary password which would expire and be deleted in a matter of hours."

Interesting! Now you may go and check the timelines again to find out when certain password-protected files might have left Wikileaks' exclusive custody. Go right ahead! No-one's going anywhere.

UPDATE: the book passage in question may be read at Google books. Just like that, for all the world to see, since the day it was published.

WIKILEAKS EDITORIAL - Guardian disclosure [Wikileaks]

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