Aside from having a misdemeanor charge from a barroom fight, he had a clean record and no other charges to his name. In 1988, Walter McMillian, a black man, was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death for murdering an 18-year-old white woman in Monroeville, Alabama. He was subjected to graphic questions about the nature of his and Kellys relationship, and he left the courtroom feeling uneasy. I don't give a damn what your people say either. He had lost his logging business and sold car parts until he became too ill to work. As a result, Alabama passed its 2001 compensation statute. "[6], McMillian was known in the small community for having an affair with a white woman, Karen Kelly. Tate replied, "I don't give a damn what you say or what you do. For the most accurate data, please search on the Detailed View page. Margaret M (McMillan) Williams 12 Jul 1891 Ontario, Canada - 24 Jan 1932 managed by Dave Stern Susannah (McMillan) McRae 24 May 1810 Robeson, North Carolina, United States - 30 Aug 1886 managed by Rod Medders Jane (McMillan) Henderson abt 1809 Stirlingshire, Scotland, United Kingdom - abt 1859 managed by Lesley Robertson In a 2015 NPR interview, Stevenson described how that phone call was a "very, very bizarre start to my career and to the work that I was doing in Alabama." The way the content is organized, Walters legal case serves as the central storyline of the book. But the laughter today felt very different. "[10][11], On December 11, 1987, Walter McMillian and Ralph Bernard Myers, a career criminal,[13] were jointly indicted. EJI proved the States witnesses had lied on the stand. A week later, prosecutors dismissed the charges. As depicted in Just Mercy, Walter McMillain's case was among the first - and the most important - of attorney Bryan Stevenson's career.After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1985, nearly a year before Morrison's murder (an inaccuracy in the film's timeline), Stevenson moved first to Atlanta, Georgia and then to Montgomery, where he helped form the Alabama Capital Representation . We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. [9], Following his own trial and sentencing, Ralph Bernard Myers told McMillian's trial counsel that the testimony he gave "against McMillian was false. He was allowed forty-five minutes of exercise per day and a few hours in the day room per week. Ariana Brockington. Walter was an unlikely suspect in Ronda's murder. This story is just one of the many injustices colored people must experience. Walter was implicated in the murder of Ronda Morrison, which led to a rather unfair trial against him. We are all broken by something. It was pointed out that Monroeville, Alabama, was "best known as the home of Harper Lee, whose To Kill a Mockingbird told a painful story of race and justice in the small-town Jim Crow South. Research the McMillian family Start your family tree now. A white man accused of crimes in another county was pressured by police and ultimately made false statements accusing Mr. McMillian of murdering Ms. Morrison. I appreciate that the author provided just enough detail so the reader could form an emotional connection to this story. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Their central case is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), an independent pulpwood worker and family man known to most as Johnny D. He . McMillian and his wife, Minnie, met when when they were teenagers and married after she became pregnant in 1962. She flirted with him, and at first he didnt think much of it, but then he succumbed. Walter McMillian was among the first exonerees from death row in the modern era. Still, the police were desperate to wrap up the Morrison case, and they felt that this was their opportunity. "Michael has. Walters sense of humor hadnt failed him despite his six years on death row. I lost my reputation. After a week of interrogation by the police, Mr. Myers accused Mr. McMillian, a pulpwood worker, as Ms. Morrison's killer. He is survived by four sons and daughters-in-law, Jimmy and Brenda McMillian, Roger and Carol McMillian all of Galax, Charles and Sandra McMillian of Hillsville, Michael McMillian of Fancy Gap; three brothers, Rush. Stevenson finishes by calling on, of the other witness testimonies. Throughout the case, Stevenson battles political and legal maneuverings, as well as overt and institutional racism, all in the name of fighting for . The McMillian family: Walter McMillian had a family of believers. McMillian (Jamie Foxx) was an African-American pulpwood worker from Monroeville, Alabama, who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of 18-year-old Ronda Morrison, a white dry-cleaning clerk. Bryan Stevenson stands in 1993 with Walter McMillan, a man wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death row for six years for the murder of an 18-year-old dry cleaning store clerk in Monroeville, Ala. Stevenson successfully argued that Stevenson was with family 11 miles away at the time of the crime, that witnesses had lied on the stand, and that the prosecution had illegally suppressed . And he had an alibi: He was at a family fish fry the morning Ronda Morrison was murdered. Advertisement. Judge Robert E. Lee Key, Jr., "had McMillian await trial on death row, as if a death sentence were a foregone conclusion, and relocated the trial from a county that was forty per cent black to an overwhelmingly white one," Baldwin County, where 86 percent of the residents were white, because the case had "generated extraordinary publicity. [3] A journalist described him as a "black pulpwood worker". Sheriff Tate was never removed from office; he retired in 2019. He first encountered Walter while he was on death row (20). Stevenson recounts the story Myers gave during. Mr. McMillian was with his family 11 miles away from the dry cleaning store where Ms. Morrison was murdered at the time of the crime. "[9] D.A. Journalist Pete Earley covered it in his book Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town (1995). Walter McMillian, who is Black, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a young white woman who worked as a clerk in a dry cleaning store in Monroeville, Alabama. Equal Justice InitiativeWalter McMillian spent six years on Alabamas death row for a murder he didnt commit. "[6] In a prison interview in 1993, McMillian said, "The only reason I'm here is because I had been messing around with a white lady and my son married a white lady. A new investigation was ordered. They tortured me with the promise of execution for six years. Walter was born on October 27, 1941 and passed away on Wednesday, September 11, 2013. . Things would be fine, he thought, as long as everything was kept secret. Yes. Born on Oct. 27, 1941, McMillian grew up in one of several poor black settlements outside Monroeville. In the 1988 trial, under a controversial Alabama doctrine called "judicial override", the judge imposed the death . When he asked for an explanation, they loudly and angrily said that he was being charged with sodomy for assaulting a man. "[9] Myers confessed that "he knew nothing about the crime, that he was not present when the crime was committed, that he had been told what to say by certain law enforcement officers, and that he had testified falsely against McMillian because of pressure from the officers. With few ordinary comforts in his life, the attention of women was something Walter did not easily resist.. McMillian, was charged with first degree murder, the murder of a very well known white girl in the community. [emailprotected], Mr. McMillians testimony specifically addressed the failure to provide adequate legal help to people in prison and on death row. Weeks later, at around 10:45 a.m. on Nov. 1, 1986, 18-year-old Ronda Morrison a white college student who was beloved by the local community was found dead at a Monroeville dry cleaners, where she worked part-time. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against McMillian, holding that a county sheriff could not be sued for money damages. I am deeply troubled by the way the criminal system treated me and the difficulty I had in proving my innocence, he told the committee. He had no prior criminal history and was a 45-year-old self-employed logger who had done work for many people throughout the community. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. Either way, its a shame that not only our officers, but our prosecutors, which I believe work closely with the police department (at least more than defense attorneys), have also been shown to be racially biased. Financial TimesWalter McMillian (left) and Bryan Stevenson after McMillians conviction was overturned in 1993. 416 pp. TRIAL: Defense asked for the trial to be moved from Monroe County to Baldwin County in Alabama due to the publicity. I have suffered pain, agony, loss, and fear in degrees that I had never imagined possible, he testified in 1993. Supporters celebrated Mr. McMillians release. Walter often sought better work to support his family. Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. Kellys husband called McMillian to testify in their divorce proceedings. The only reason Im here is because I had been messing around with a white lady, he told the New York Times from death row. He claimed that McMillian's exoneration "proved the system worked. In November 1988, 28-year-old attorney Bryan Stevenson, a Harvard Law School and Harvard School of Government graduate, who was the director of the newly formed Alabama Capital Representation Resource Center in Montgomery, took on the task of appealing the case. Myers already pleaded guilty as an accomplice in Morrisons murder and received a 30-year prison sentence avoiding a possible death sentence for the Pittman murder. At the trial, Hooks kept his testimony and claimed to have seen the truck near the Jackson Cleaners at the time of Ronda Morrisons murder.3, McMillian was innocent. Jamie Foxx portrays McMillian and Michael B. Jordan stars as Stevenson. The people of Monroeville, Alabama was shaken up with fear and anger by Morrison's murder. Police, prosecutors, and judges are immune from judgments that require them to make payments to people victimized by abuse of authority. Before you check out Jamie Foxx in the new film Just Mercy, learn the true story of Walter McMillian, an Alabama man wrongfully convicted for a brutal murder who spent six years on death row. But when the word got out about their affair, he grew worried. Stevenson next calls to the stand Clay Kast, was being held on death row as punishment for refusing to continue his testimony against, testimony while Ikner, Tate and Benson coerce him to continue. With no leads for six months, the police focused their attention on Walter McMilllian. "[5] This practice, called judicial override, allows "elected trial judges to override jury verdicts of life and impose death sentences." The upcoming film, Just Mercy, focuses on a petition for a new trial led by Walter McMillians lawyer, Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative. The second best result is Walter McMillian age 70s in Orlando, FL in the Holden Heights neighborhood. Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. Just one grandparent can lead you to many discoveries. Myers was picked up for a different murder, that of a poor white woman named Vickie Pittman. When asked whether his change of fortune restored his faith in the justice system, McMillian simply replied, No. Early History of the McMillan family. Support The National Registry of Exonerations , The Contribution of Forensic and Expert Evidence to DNA Exoneration Cases, Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States, 2022, Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent, Witness Recantations: Preliminary Findings, May 2013, Exonerations in the United States: 1989 - 2012, Tell us about an Exoneration that we missed. Mr. McMillian was released from death row as a free man in March 1993. After, Stevenson agrees to work with the CBS program 60 Minutes to produce a story about, an innocent man in prison until the real murderer is found. When a mostly-white jury convicted Walter McMillian in 1988 for the murder of a white woman in Monroeville, Alabama and recommended life in prison, a local judge overruled them and imposed the death penalty instead. The jury recommended a life sentence, but on September 19, 1988, the judge overrode the jurys recommendation and imposed the death penalty. . The Alabama Bureau of Investigation ultimately confirmed the evidence uncovered by EJI and determined that Mr. McMillian was innocent, but prosecutors still wavered on whether they would join the motion filed by EJI to dismiss all charges against Mr. McMillian. Innocence conference at Northwestern Law School, Chicago, 1998. Myers heard popping sounds, and he found McMillian standing over the victim with a gun in his hand. . During the closing argument of the trial, the state emphasized the victim's beauty and her life, as well as the brutality of her murder. "[6], Eighteen-year-old Ronda Morrison, a white dry-cleaning clerk, was murdered at Jackson Cleaners on November 1, 1986, in Monroeville, Alabama. As a result, there have been no answers in Ronda Morrison's murder. List of wrongful convictions in the United States, "Death of justice in Alabama: Brian Baldwin was condemned to the electric chair by a racist travesty", "Double Jeopardy: In Alabama, a judge can override a jury that spares a murderer from the death penalty", "Alabama Releases Man Held On Death Row for Six Years", Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, "An Alabama Sheriff, a Mystery Check and a Blogger Who Cried Foul", "Alabama frees black man on death row for 6 years - Walter McMillan", "One Lawyer's Fight For Young Blacks And 'Just Mercy', Jamie Foxx in Talks to Join Michael B. Jordan in Legal Drama 'Just Mercy', Equal Justice Initiative - Walter McMillian, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_McMillian&oldid=1134436044, Overturned convictions in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 18 January 2023, at 17:56. On April 1, 1993, Mr. McMillian spoke to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about the urgent need to end the death penalty. Research genealogy for Walter Mcmillian of Florida, as well as other members of the Mcmillian family, on Ancestry. They knew their statements against a white mans perjured testimony didnt stand a chance.4, McMillians trial lasted two days. He suffered mentally and physically to the point where he developed early on-set dementia. Walter McMillian worked hard providing for his wife and their three children. It took a significant toll on his health and led to him developing early-onset dementia. Jamie Foxx plays Walter McMillian in the film, Just Mercy. To him and his family, the money he got from picking cotton was worth a lot more than an education. Mr. McMillians experience on death row was traumatic. Eventually, Myers gave a taped confession in which he said that he drove McMillian to the scene of the crime and that McMillian went into the building alone. Walter McMillian (left) and Bryan Stevenson after McMillians conviction was overturned in 1993. And it was too hard in light of the evidence of his innocence to show this court that he should never have been here in the first place.. I have survived these six long years, but I am a different man. He explained the horror of seeing seven other men executed during his time at Alabamas Holman Prison: I experienced the executions with the greatest pain and with enormous fear about whether this would happen to me. The website is updated daily, frequently with exonerations that occurred in the past. As a gregarious guy who owned his own business rare for a black man in the area McMillian was a bit of a local celebrity. Our death penalty system treats you better if youre rich and guilty than if youre poor and innocent. This article illuminates how unfair and biased the justice system is to the minorities but also people of color. McMillian is portrayed by Jamie Foxx and Stevenson is played by Michael B. Jordan, the "Black Panther" star who has used his considerable leverage to bring the story to the screen. [9], Further investigation revealed that McMillian's truck, supposedly seen by witnesses at the scene of the crime, had not been converted to a "low-rider" until six months after the crime took place. We all share the condition of brokenness, even if our brokenness is not equivalent [] Our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity for compassion. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. It was a pleasure to read this article about William McMillan. Grandfather. The trial began on August 15, 1988 and lasted only a day and a half. The suspect, who was from a prominent family then fled town. It was founded in 2012 in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. 96-542 WALTER McMILLIAN, PETITIONER v. MONROE COUNTY, ALABAMA on writ of certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the eleventh circuit [ June 2, 1997 ] Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. October 10, 1995. That one testimony of Hooks was all it took to convict him for the murder of Ronda Morrison. This article is informative and well written! Simplified. Albert Walter McMillian. American wrongly convicted of murder (19412013), According to the 1993 appeal, Judge R.E.L. They threatened me for six years. "[9][Notes 6][3][12] In pursuing those claims, the attorneys obtained the original recording of Myers' confession. Walter McMillian (1941 - 2013) . McMillian was accused of murdering an 18-year-old girl and was put on death row. McMillian was then placed in a cell on death row where he waited for a year before his trial took place. A deputy then revealed to McMillian that the initial charge was only a way to impound his truck. It is also so sad to think about the families of those who are wronged by the justice system and to imagine what they themselves are going through. Please enable scripts and reload this page. (334) 269-1803 McMillian was completely clueless as to why this was happening to him. No fingerprints, no fibers not a single piece of physical evidence connecting McMillian to the crime scene. Stevenson was in his 20s and eager to take on the case, even though the unfortunately named judge discouraged him from doing so. There was a tragic murder of eighteen-year-old Ronda Morrison. Judge Key warns Stevenson not to take on the case of, death row inmates. They lived in a sharecropper's shack. I have plenty of friends who are sentenced 10 or 20 years in jail and they feel doomed as soon as the judge slams the gavel. McMillian presented six alibi witnesses who testified that they had been with him at a family fish fry the entire day. I feel like they done put me on death row, too. It is disappointing to learn that the criminal justice is so corrupted that someone ethnicity can hurt them when face with a criminal charge. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. They convicted McMillian of first-degree murder. I am also worried about others. By the 1950s, however, cotton became less profitable, and the state of Alabama helped many white farmers transition to growing and chopping timber. When Walter McMillian was a 12-year-old black boy in Monroe County, Alabama where Harper Lee set To Kill a Mockingbird a bullet-riddled black man was found hanging from a tree in nearby Vredenburgh. During their first year together, they almost starved, with Walter working as a field hand for $14 per week. Walter McMillian, left, and Bryan Stevenson, right (Photo from the Equal Justice Initiative) In 1986, an 18-year-old White woman named Ronda Morrison was murdered at Jackson Cleaners in Monroeville, Alabama. 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