Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has a decision in front of him that shouldn't be hard.
Curtis Walker has applied for a commutation. In 1994, Walker was 17 when he fired the shot that killed Milwaukee Police Officer William Robertson. A federal appeals court later described Robertson as a cop Walker and an accomplice selected at random for murder.
Walker was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide and sentenced to life, with parole eligibility in 2071.
Robertson was 31 years old. He had been with the Milwaukee Police Department only six months and was still in field training. Fifteen minutes into his shift on Sept. 7, 1994, a rifle tore through the police van and struck him from behind.
From Wisconsin Right Now:
On September 7, 1994, Milwaukee police officers William Robertson and James Andritsos “were in a patrol wagon on their way to check on a report of gang activity,” court records say. “Officer Robertson, sitting in the front passenger seat, was fatally wounded by a bullet that came through the left rear of the wagon. The evidence proved that…Curtis Walker had fired the shot from a high-powered rifle with a telescopic sight from a distance of 183 feet.” Walker was 17 at the time.
“Curtis stated that he shot at the police paddy wagon knowing it was the police and that he was aiming for the driver’s side window,” an accomplice told police. “Curtis told him that the reason he shot at the police was because he was geeked up. And that meaning, I asked him, ‘Well, what’s geeked up?’ And he said hyped up … from a rap song called Gangster-Shukar and Ice‑T and Spice-One and M.C.A. He states that this rap song refers to shooting policemen.”
Officer Robertson “had graduated from the Police Academy only six months prior and was still in field training when he was struck by gunfire while on patrol. Robertson was sitting in the passenger seat of the van which was being driven by his partner, a 10-year veteran officer who was training Robertson,” MPD says.
“As they turned south onto 24th Street, the shot rang out. The bullet pierced the driver’s side of the van and traveled across to the passenger area and struck Robertson from behind in the left shoulder. The ambush was committed by two suspects. One of the men was standing on a corner next to a stop sign. When the van approached, he signaled to the second suspect who was hiding in a nearby vacant lot. The second suspect fired a rifle shot into the van, striking Officer Robertson.”
“Both men were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.”
His wife was seven months pregnant with twins.
Curtis Walker, who assassinated beloved #Milwaukee #police officer William Robertson with a high-powered rifle with a telescopic sight – in one of the most horrific crimes in Wisconsin history – is among the more than 800 #Wisconsin prison inmates who have applied for a… pic.twitter.com/W1ui6WgCmg
— Wisconsin Right Now (@wisconsin_now) August 18, 2026
Those last eight words should sit on Evers' desk when Walker's application reaches him.
A wife expecting two babies lost her husband. Two children entered the world without ever knowing their father alive. William Robertson never heard their first words or watched their first steps. He missed the school concerts, graduations, birthdays, and ordinary evenings at home.
Walker has spent decades in prison while Robertson's family has spent those same decades living with what Walker took from them.
Evers created the current commutation process in April. His rules allow somebody serving a life sentence to apply after 20 years, and the special juvenile process covers offenders who were 19 or younger at conviction and received life or more than 39 years.
The governor's website says victims' "perspectives and opinions" will be an important consideration.
Only Evers grants a Wisconsin commutation.
Good. Tony, may I call you Tony? Make the call.
Call Robertson's widow, call the twins, and ask them what nearly 32 years without William looked like. Ask about the milestones he missed because a teenager with a scoped, high-powered rifle decided to fire at a police vehicle. Ask whether they believe his killer's punishment has become too harsh with the passage of time.
The courts already wrestled with Walker's age. The sentencing judge considered his difficult childhood and his capacity for rehabilitation before setting parole eligibility for 2017.
Walker later challenged what he called a de facto life-without-parole sentence.
In 2025, the federal appeals court upheld the denial of relief.
Mercy has a place in public life. Evers also has a duty to remember who paid the price for Walker's crime. The consequences fell first on Robertson's family, and they have carried them for nearly 32 years.
From Wisconsin Right Now:
The Evers’ commutation application list includes dozens of other killers, and it also reveals that Evers’ office is treating Ted Oswald, who was 18 when he and his father murdered Waukesha Police Capt. James Lutz, as a “juvenile life sentence” case on the list. (Jim Piwowarczyk is handling that story separately for WRN; you can read his story about that case here.)
We obtained the names and number of commutation applicants by filing an open records request with Gov. Tony Evers’ office, asking for a list of all of the state prison inmates who have applied for release under his new commutation process, which restarted commutations for the first time in 25 years through April executive orders. August 18, 2026, Evers’ office complied.
Evers, who once promised to free half of the state’s prison population, also created a board to review applicants; however, he embedded a loophole in his executive order allowing inmates to bypass the board and go directly to his desk. The first meeting of the Commutation Advisory Board will be held on Friday, August 21, 2026. We previously reported that the list of 12 applicants being considered at that hearing contains multiple killers. The board will deliberate in closed session.
Walker had a future when he pulled the trigger. William Robertson had one, too. So did a pregnant wife and two unborn children whose lives were permanently changed before they were born.
Evers should, and better, hear them. He should look at the sentence, look at the crime, and remember whose absence has lasted every day since 1984.
Then he should deny Curtis Walker's request.
