Baldwin cop killer denied clemency

A man who killed a Baldwin County sheriff’s deputy was denied clemency Monday after a hearing before the State Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Robert Wayne Holsey, 49, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. The execution comes nearly 20 years after Deputy Will Robinson was shot in the line of duty.

“We’re obviously pleased with the decision,” said Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Fred Bright, who prosecuted Holsey. “We think it’s true justice in the case.”

Holsey fatally shot Robinson in a motel parking lot in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 1995, after robbing a Jet Food Store in Milledgeville.

A jury convicted Holsey of malice murder, felony murder and armed robbery, and he was sentenced on Feb. 13, 1997. The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the conviction as well as affirmed the jury’s verdict, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied Holsey’s appeal on June 10, 2013.

During a clemency hearing Monday, an attorney for Holsey argued that Holsey’s trial attorney, Andy Prince, was an alcoholic who mishandled the case. Brian Kammer, executive director of the Georgia Resource Center, has said that Prince omitted key information including evidence of childhood abuse and alleged intellectual disabilities.

Meanwhile, Bright argued against clemency. Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee; Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, who at the time was an investigator on the case; and members of the victim’s family also spoke, Bright said. He said he got the call about the decision an hour to an hour-and-a-half after arguments concluded.

Meetings of the pardons and paroles board are closed to the public and the media. The board did not say why it denied clemency.

Holsey’s attorneys still are waiting on word from the Georgia Supreme Court about a request for a stay of execution.

Grant Blankenship of Georgia Public Broadcasting contributed to this report.

This story was originally published December 8, 2014 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Baldwin cop killer denied clemency ."