Use datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp:
>>> import datetime
>>> s = 1236472051807 / 1000.0
>>> datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(s).strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f')
'2009-03-08 09:27:31.807000'
%f directive is only supported by datetime.datetime.strftime, not by time.strftime.
UPDATE Alternative using %, str.format:
>>> import time
>>> s, ms = divmod(1236472051807, 1000) # (1236472051, 807)
>>> '%s.%03d' % (time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', time.gmtime(s)), ms)
'2009-03-08 00:27:31.807'
>>> '{}.{:03d}'.format(time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', time.gmtime(s)), ms)
'2009-03-08 00:27:31.807'