As part of the first wave of commutations Governor Tony Evers is making in his final weeks in office, he commuted the sentence of a man who brutally murdered an Air Force veteran.
On the evening of May 27, 1993, Roger Buchholz, a 50-year-old Air Force veteran, businessman, and father of two from Greendale, was driving home through Milwaukee after going to dinner with colleagues at a Financial Executives International event.
When he stopped his car at a traffic light at the intersection of 35th Street and Clybourn Avenue, a group of young men, including 17-year-old Mighty Howell, tried to rob Buchholz. When Buchholz attempted to drive away, Howell shot him.
Buchholz’s car traveled a short distance before crashing into a building. He was pronounced dead a short time later.
Howell was arrested, waived into adult court, and charged with first-degree intentional homicide as party to a crime, attempted armed robbery as party to a crime, and possession of a firearm by a juvenile. He was found guilty on all counts during a bench trial and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 2038. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld his convictions in 1996.
Howell was one of 10 convicted murderers whose sentences Evers commuted on Friday in the first commutations a Wisconsin governor has granted in more than 30 years. It is expected that Evers will commute more sentences before he leaves office in early January.
