This is yet another example in a long list of reasons why the death penalty should be banned.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Like so many before him, Texas death row inmate Robert Gene Will II says he’s not guilty.

Will insists that if he can get a fair hearing, he will be another one. He admits he was no saint in his younger days, that he ran with a bad crowd, and yes, that he and a buddy were breaking into a car on the morning of Dec. 4, 2000, when a spotlight suddenly caught them in its glare. Within moments his life changed forever, and Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Barrett Hill lost his.

Will claims he did not shoot Hill. He has claimed as much since the day of his arrest. He could not have done it, he says, because his hands literally were tied behind his back.

Now, it’s easy to claim innocence.  This case, however, claims of innocence have substantial merit.

 ”On top of the considerable evidence supporting Will’s innocence and the important errors in the trial court, there must also be addressed the total absence of eyewitness testimony or strongly probative forensic evidence. With facts such as these, and only circumstantial evidence supporting Will’s conviction and death sentence, the court laments the strict limitations placed upon it.”

Prosecutors contended that Will shot the deputy and admitted as much to a motorist he encountered during a later carjacking as he was trying to escape. Will’s lawyers argue that the motorist did not mention that in any of her early statements to police.

Will’s lawyers also have argued that Rosario, the son of a Houston police officer who was not charged in the murder, has admitted killing Hill to at least five individuals. They also point to an absence of any forensic evidence connecting Will to the shooting, and to a bullet graze on the back of a jacket Will wore that morning – consistent with a shot being fired by Rosario toward Hill when the latter was close by and in custody. Hill’s weapon was not fired.

No corroborating forensic evidence, no eyewitness testimony, testimony that contradicts the police report, and the accused has a bullet hole in his jacket.

Yep, sounds like he’s guilty.  *sarcasm*

Related articles

• Perry: I don’t lose sleep over Texas executions (cbsnews.com)
• Death row inmate’s effort to spare live gains momentum – Rob Will (claimyourinnocence.wordpress.com)
• When Innocence Isn’t Enough (nytimes.com)
• Alabama Denies DNA Test To Potentially Innocent Man On Death Row (thinkprogress.org)