A famous proverb says that time and tide wait for no man.

Today, people typically use the proverb to refer to the failure to act when opportunity knocks.

But the origin of the phrase lies in the powerlessness of man.

The proverb can be traced back to Jeffrey Chaucer's prologue to the clerks' tale.

Chaucer's proverb was inspired by King Canute, whose courteous told him he was omnipidant.

To demonstrate his impidance in the face of Mother Nature, King Canute took his men to the sea

and commanded the tide to stop with predictable results.

Of course, a man can no more stop time than he can stop tide.

When Willie V.C. was arrested in 1992, he was 26 years old.

When I spoke with his sister, Ketra, about a month ago, it was Willie's 52nd birthday.

He's now spent half of his life in prison, and his then 12-year-old sister is now a 37-year-old mother.

I just want my mother to come home because he has so much of not only my life, but I choose life.

You know, and it's hard to accept it when somebody's always been here for you.

No matter what, whether it was good or bad.

And as I was growing up, I used to say, no, my brother was going to walk through the door of Christmas.

He won't surprise me when he hears what surprised me on my birthday.

What I get in the mouth is the cards from him, and I'm like, where is my brother?

At Willie V.C.'s trial, the strongest evidence of his innocence was not a man, not even a human being.

According to the prosecutor, you can put it on the witness stand, and you can ask it questions until you're blue in the face.

It will say nothing.

This was true, but the prosecutor's argument could be both a blessing and a curse.

Because unlike a human counterpart, the evidence of Willie V.C.'s innocence also couldn't lie, couldn't be motivated to protect him.

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