The Alabama Department of Corrections announced Sunday the death of a 60-year-old inmate of cancer after a fierce battle to prove his innocence.
William Ernest Kuenzel died Saturday, his defense attorneys confirmed. He was on death row but hoped to have a new trial after his 1988 murder conviction.
Kuenzel was found guilty of killing Linda Jean Offord amid a robbery at a convenience store but his conviction was mainly based on the testimony of teen that didn’t recognize the actual gunman and that of a co-defendant as part of a plea-deal.
The case turned into a high-profile legal battle with reputed supporters backing Kuenzel’s request to have a second trial.
The US Circuit Court of Appeals had turned down Kuenzel’s appeal in 2012 arguing that the new evidence in his case was not “of the powerful kind” to change the verdict.
In 2016, the US Supreme Court declined to review the 60-year-old’s case.
