The Alabama Supreme Court is refusing to overturn the conviction and life sentence of a man convicted of taking a tool from a home improvement store.
The justices refused Friday to hear the appeal of Willie Lee Conner.
Court documents show Conner left a Lowe's store in Baldwin County without paying for a roofing nailer in 2012. He didn't resist a worker who confronted outside the store, but he did claim to have a gun once back inside.
Conner was convicted of first-degree robbery and sentenced to life as a habitual offender. But he appealed claiming he couldn't be convicted of robbery since he didn't have a deadly weapon.
A majority rejected Conner's appeal, but Chief Justice Roy Moore disagreed in a dissent. Moore calls the life sentence unjust.
"I also believe that allowing the Court of Criminal Appeals' decision to stand is a grave injustice. Conner was convicted of first-degree robbery and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Robbery always has been punished more harshly than other forms of theft because the use of force puts the victim in danger," Moore wrote.
"There is a difference between justice and overkill. Despite his statement that he had "a gun," the undisputed evidence showed indeed that Conner did not have a gun."
Moore added that "Conner has been subjected to an unjust punishment because of an illegal conviction."
Moore made a similar statement in September when the court refused to overturn the case of a man sentenced to life without parole for a drug offense.
"A trial court should have the discretion to impose a less severe sentence than life imprisonment without the possibility of parole," Moore wrote in that case. "I urge the legislature to revisit that statutory sentencing scheme to determine whether it serves an appropriate purpose."