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. From my cell you could smell the stench of burning flesh. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. McMillian, was charged with first degree murder, the murder of a very well known white girl in the community. 2. Stevenson obtained the recording where Myers confessed to the Morrison murder, but when they flipped the tape they heard the same man complaining about confessing to a crime he and McMillian did not commit. Walter Lester McMillian, 72, of Fancy Gap, died May 26, 2002, in Beverly Health Care-Blue Ridge. Mr. McMillians conviction was overturned and he was released from death row. Walter McMillian (Photo/Equal Justice Initiative). In addition, one of his sons had married a white woman. It also emerged that District Attorney Theodore Pearson "had concealed evidence proving his innocence": a witness had seen the victim alive after the time when prosecutors claimed that McMillian had killed her. Early History of the McMillan family. That one testimony of Hooks was all it took to convict him for the murder of Ronda Morrison. Stevenson came across McMillians case and met with him and began working on appealing his case. He came to attention because he had an affair with a married white woman. [7], Upon discovery of this evidence, District Attorney Thomas Chapman, who had represented the state in McMillian's previous appeals, told Stevenson, "I want to do everything I can so that your client will not have to spend a single day more than he already has on death row. As a result, Alabama passed its 2001 compensation statute. For months, the police could not solve this case. The person of interest was a black man named Walter McMillian. It was too easy for one person to come into court and frame a man for a murder he didnt commit. "[6], The story was featured in a 1995 book entitled Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town by former Washington Post journalist Pete Earley. I'm going to put twelve people on a jury who are going to find your goddamn black ass guilty. During their first year together, they almost starved, with Walter working as a field hand for $14 per week. [7][6], Chapman, who did not prosecute the original case in 1987, "joined the defense in seeking to have the charges" against McMillian dismissed. They convicted McMillian of first-degree murder. ", According to David Rose in his 1999 article in. No fingerprints, no fibers not a single piece of physical evidence connecting McMillian to the crime scene. We would often talk about situations and people connected to the case that, for all the damage they had caused, had still made us laugh at their absurdity. In 1986, an 18-year-old white woman named Ronda Morrison was murdered in downtown Monroeville, Alabama. 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.. October 10, 1995. Until his dying wish he did not receive justice for his wrongful conviction. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." McMillian's case served as a catalyst for Alabama's compensation statute, which was passed in 2001. [15], Since then, the frequency of the judge override in Alabama has come under scrutiny: "Nearly seventy Alabama judges have single-handedly ordered an inmate's execution, and collectively they have done so more than a hundred times. He had all the evidence and witnesses he could and still knowing in the end it was useless and wouldnt help him for his case is sad. McMillian claims innocence, but in 1988 he is convicted by a jury of young Morrison's murder. Their central case is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), an independent pulpwood worker and family man known to most as Johnny D. He . We are all broken by something. The McMillian family: Walter McMillian had a family of believers. An effort to hold the sheriff accountable went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Court ruled that Sheriff Tate was protected from liability based on immunity laws. Police, prosecutors, and judges are immune from judgments that require them to make payments to people victimized by abuse of authority. Research the McMillian family Start your family tree now. Stevenson finishes by calling on, of the other witness testimonies. Walter was born on October 27, 1941 and passed away on Wednesday, September 11, 2013. . Like Walter, she is from the poor black community just outside of Monroeville. / Walter McMillian (left) celebrates with family after Bryan Stevenson won his release from death row in 1993. He suffered mentally and physically to the point where he developed early on-set dementia. Walter McMillian was among the first exonerees from death row in the modern era. Born to a poor black family outside of Monroeville, Alabama, Walter became a successful small businessman as an adult. Stevenson tries to hasten, rushes to the courthouse to pick up the 35-page ruling in which the judge nullifies, Before a new trial can be scheduled, Stevenson files a motion to have all of, The morning of the hearing, Stevenson tells, A camera crew came to the U.S. to interview EJI and people theyd represented, including. "[6] Stevenson disagreed, telling the court that "it was far too easy to convict this wrongly accused man for murder and send him to death row for something he didn't do and much too hard to win his freedom after proving his innocence. Stevenson then visited McMillian's community and "met dozens of African-Americans who were with this condemned man at the time the crime took place 11 miles away who absolutely knew he was innocent. About $35 was missing. Testimony of the trial lasted a day and a half. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against McMillian, holding that a county sheriff could not be sued for money damages. Plus, McMillian didnt fit the profile of a murderer: He had no prior felony convictions, just one misdemeanor for getting dragged into a bar fight years earlier. I feel like they done put me on death row, too. The sheriff arranged for Mr. McMillian to be placed on death row before his trialwhen he hadnt even been convicted of a crime. For many death row inmates, it takes years to get the kind of legal representation and investigation necessary to prove your innocence., Learn more about Walter McMillian by reading "Just Mercy". According to NYU (where he's an Aronson Family Professor of Criminal Justice), he started representing death row inmates from the Deep South in 1985, and founded the nonprofit law organization Equal Justice Initiative in 1989. In November 1992, he told CBS News 60 Minutes that Alabama was preparing to execute the wrong. His loving friends and family spoke very highly of him and of everything he did for his community.1, On November 1, 1986 in Monroeville, Alabama, shocking news struck the town. 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. After he had decided to take the appeal, he got a phone call from Judge Key discouraging Stevenson from taking the case. On November 1, 1986, the body of 18-year-old part-time clerk Ronda Morrison was found under a rack of clothing at Jackson Cleaners in Monroeville, Alabama. 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. Walter is related to Jane Marie Price and Jaline Renae McMillan as well as 3 additional people. Key had retired by 1993, During the 1993 appeal it was revealed that, "Two mechanics, Willie Nettles and Clay Kast, testified that they had modified the appellant's truck to convert it to a low-rider and that they did not do this work until several months after the commission of the crime at Jackson Cleaners. As a result, there have been no answers in Ronda Morrison's murder. "[6], McMillian was known in the small community for having an affair with a white woman, Karen Kelly. Walter McMillian was married to Minnie McMillian for 25 years. Bryan Stevenson discusses the outrageous miscarriage of justice in the case of Walter McMillian. Birthdate: estimated between 1837 and 1897. 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. Bryan, who was the attorney on Walter's case, was young and just starting his career. [5], Six years after the original trial, in an unrelated case, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals found that the prosecutor, District Attorney Theodore Pearson, and Judge Key "had practiced 'intentional racial discrimination' in jury selection. They had already received previous backlash from the public because his son was known for marrying a white woman. No. The petition also alleged that the state of Alabama "had violated his constitutional rights by withholding exculpatory and impeachment information". After the jury took a vote, the final decision was made, and McMillian was sentenced to death.5, In 1988, freshly graduated from Harvard, Bryan Stevenson was eager to help inmates on death row. Teachers and parents! Find Walter Mcmillian's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading online directory for contact information. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. [13][5] Two of the witnesses claimed to have seen McMillian's "low-rider" truck outside the dry cleaner's around the time that the crime occurred. Did they ever reopen the case for the murder of Ronda Morrison, since Walter McMillians was proven to be innocent, or had the statute of limitations passed then? All NRE reports represent a moment in time. The way the content is organized, Walters legal case serves as the central storyline of the book. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. One of his early cases was that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who is put on deathrow in 1987 for the murder of an eighteen year-old White girl, regardless of the evidence proving his innocence. Born on Oct. 27, 1941, McMillian grew up in one of several poor black settlements outside Monroeville. us about an exoneration that we may have missed, Correct an error or add information about an exoneration Struggling with distance learning? A Life on Both Sides of the Ocean Mary McMillan in her early twenties Mary McMillan was born in Boston in 1880, just a few years after her parents emigrated from Scotland. Seven months passed and every one of the polices leads went nowhere. McMillian had explained to Sheriff Tate shortly after his arrest that he was at the fish fry on the morning of November 1. Stevenson presented the newfound evidence at hearings and appeals before the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. The nearly all-white jury convicted Mr. McMillian of capital murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole. The shift largely benefited white landowners and left most blacks unemployed. An uncle of the murder victim, in fact, came by and told them she was killed, witnesses said. [6] However, Chapman did not agree that there had been a "deliberate effort to frame Mr. The crime sent shock waves of fear and anger through the small community. His case lacked evidence but he was still. On August 17, 1988, the jury of eleven whites and one African American found McMillian "guilty of the capital offense charged in the indictment"[9] and recommended a life sentence, based on the testimony of four state's informants found by the prosecution: Ralph Myers,[9] a career criminal; Bill Hooks, Jr.; Joe Hightower;[9] and one other. McMillian. I lost my life. I lost my job. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. He had a large, tight-knit family and several children with his wife. [13][5][Notes 2], The "jury ignored multiple alibi defense witnesses, who were black, who testified under oath that he was at a fish fry at the time of the crime. The appellant, Walter McMillian, was jointly indicted with Ralph Bernard Myers in a two-count indictment on December 11, 1987, in Monroe County, for the offense of murder made capital because it was committed during a robbery in the first degree, a violation of 13A-5-40(a)(2), Code of Alabama 1975. 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. Despite the lack of any physical evidence linking McMillian to the murder of a white clerk named Ronda Morrison, he was arrested for the crime more than six months after it took place. Or we can deny our brokenness, foreswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity. McMillian's case served as a catalyst for Alabama's compensation statute, which was passed in 2001. (334) 269-1803 Things would be fine, he thought, as long as everything was kept secret. What do we tell these children about how to stay out of harms way when you can be at your own house, minding your own business, surrounded by your entire family, and they still put some murder on you that you aint do and send you to death row? On the other hand, maybe the jury has more fault, since surely the defense attorney would had pointed out the inconsistencies of the witnesses testimonies, meaning that it cant be trusted, but the majority of them ultimately decided to turn a blind eye too. Resistance to acknowledging Mr. McMillians innocence was intense. 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. Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. Equal Justice Initiative With his conviction overturned, Walter McMillian was released from death row in 1993. Further investigation revealed that McMillians truck had only been converted to a low-rider six months after the crime took place, and that prosecutors had concealed information about a witness who had seen the victim alive after the time the prosecutors claimed that McMillian had killed her. In the 1988 trial, under a controversial Alabama doctrine called "judicial override", the judge imposed the death . The . McMillian later developed dementia and died in 2013, but his name lives on at the center of the criminal justice reform movement. The jury recommended a life sentence, but on September 19, 1988, the judge overrode the jurys recommendation and imposed the death penalty. Kellys husband called McMillian to testify in their divorce proceedings. Mr. McMillian was arrested, and in an extraordinary move, was immediately . Darnell explains that after, at the Monroe County Courthouse, Stevensons hopes fade as Chapman expresses his unquestioning belief in, is tell the truth. Now that the retrial has been denied, Stevensons next step in, at the Tutwiler Womens Prison for the Pittman murder. Instant downloads of all 1682 LitChart PDFs 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. Because the case generated extraordinary publicity in Monroe County, where the white population was 60 percent, the trial was moved to Baldwin County, where whites made up 86 percent of the population. Just one grandparent can lead you to many discoveries. The people of Monroeville, Alabama was shaken up with fear and anger by Morrison's murder. But the overwhelming evidence of innocence ultimately forced the State to agree to drop the charges. They brought him to a store where McMillian and a few other black men were shopping, but Myers couldnt tell which one was his supposed partner-in-crime; he had to ask the stores manager to identify him. The following week, on March 2, Circuit Court Judge Pamela W. Baschab ruled on the motion, dismissing all charges against McMillian. He has won all but one of the five cases he's argued at the Court. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. But then police arrested Ralph Myers, a white man with a drug problem and a lengthy criminal record who was also a new friend of Karen Kellys, McMillians ex. 416 pp. And he had an alibi: He was at a family fish fry the morning Ronda Morrison was murdered. Before Walter McMillian was released from death row. His story was a counter narrative to the rhetoric of fairness and reliability offered by politicians and law enforcement officials who wanted more and faster executions. Death: Immediate Family: Son of Laban Parks McMillian and Ada Kirk. Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. She supports and cares for her five children during Walter's incarceration. 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 . Skip Ancestry main menu Main Menu. Judge Robert E. Lee Key overrode the jurys sentence of life imprisonment and sentenced Mr. McMillian to death by electrocution. McMillian clearly recalled the moment the news got to them. By the 1950s, however, cotton became less profitable, and the state of Alabama helped many white farmers transition to growing and chopping timber. Walter McMillian (Photo/Equal Justice Initiative) On November 1, 1986, the body of 18-year-old part-time clerk Ronda Morrison was found under a rack of clothing at Jackson Cleaners in Monroeville, Alabama. Walter McMillian with his family after his release from prison. They found evidence that the States witnesses against Mr. McMillian had been coerced, including tape recordings proving that the States only eyewitness had been pressured to testify falsely at Mr. McMillians trial. Walter often sought better work to support his family. LitCharts Teacher Editions. DuBois's short story "Of the Coming of John", which he discusses on page 100-101. With his conviction overturned, Walter McMillian was released from death row in 1993. harrowing last words of 23 executed criminals. A 60 Minutes segment and other national press coverage about his case led to other exonerations. Walter married Maggie Ella McMillan (born Miller) on month day 1908, at age 24 at marriage place. "[3], After returning to his family and hometown of Monroeville, McMillian filed a civil lawsuit against state and local officials, including "the three men in charge of investigating the Morrison murder Tom Tate, the Sheriff of Monroe County; Larry Ikner, an investigator with the District Attorney's office in Monroe County; and Simon Benson, an investigator with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation",[19] for his wrongful prosecution and conviction. 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. Walter " Johnny D. " McMillian (October 27, 1941 - September 11, 2013) [1] was a pulpwood worker from Monroeville, Alabama, who was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The case outlines the basic premise of frustrated local law enforcement, the DA of Monroe County, needed to, for lack of a better term, save his ass. When you are poor and under sentence of death you worry about a lot of things. His time spent in prison was torture not only to McMillian but to his family and friends as well. He then slipped him a note, supposedly written by Karen Kelly, but McMillian looked confused and threw the note away. The real-life Walter McMillian (left) and lawyer Bryan Stevenson. Mr. McMillian was sent back to his cell on death row, where he ultimately spent six years. "[13][5] There was no physical evidence implicating McMillian. They have also lived in Winter Park, FL and Lake Mary, FL. The visits from his family were the only thing getting him by in his time there. Tell They lived in a sharecropper's shack. Pearson had failed to disclose exculpatory evidence to McMillian's attorneys, including records from the Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility and Myers' June 3 and August 27 statements. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. After a week of interrogation by the police, Mr. Myers accused Mr. McMillian, a pulpwood worker, as Ms. Morrison's killer. 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. . . He writes that Norton was uninterested in the subject of, career, but had become passionate about the work of EJI after interning one summer. 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. Walter McMillian, who was born on October 27, 1941, lived in a black settlement near Monroeville where he "grew up picking cotton. The crime took place at the Jackson Cleaners in Monroeville. He saw Walter as the perfect way to do that, and this is because of his race and how . One of the many Alabama cases assigned to him is that of. Morrison, who was white, had been bludgeoned, strangled and shot three times. It is a miracle that Mr. Stevenson reviewed Mr. McMillans case, without his review, an innocent man would been put to death due to racial discrimination. He met Karen Kelly, who was 25 and unhappily married, at the Waffle House where he ate breakfast. McMillian was convicted by a jury of eleven whites and one African American. This article is informative and well written! [9] McMillian was charged with a two-count indictment "for the offense of murder made capital because it was committed during a robbery in the first degree", and the jury recommended a life sentence. Another time journalism helped bring justice into worldview was in the Walter McMillian case. "Just Mercy," a movie about the case, opens in theaters this . This was Alabama in 1986. memorial page for Albert Walter McMillian (13 Oct 1862-2 Oct 1948), Find a Grave Memorial ID 7915499, citing Oakland Cemetery, Saint Paul . Ariana Brockington. Appellant, Walter McMillian, was jointly indicted with Ralph Myers, in a two-count indictment, on December 11, 1987, in Monroe County, for the capital offense of murder committed during a robbery in the first degree, in violation of 13A-5-40(a)(2), Code of Alabama 1975. . Walter McMillian was nearly put to death for a crime he did not commit One of young lawyer Stevenson's first and most incendiary cases after founding the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative was. In Beverly Health Care-Blue Ridge Minnie McMillian and their three children a `` deliberate to. Distance learning goddamn black ass guilty, McMillian grew up in one of his and... As the central storyline of the murder of Ronda Morrison & # x27 ; s argued at Waffle. He met Karen Kelly born on Oct. 27, 1941 and passed away on Wednesday, 11. Prison for the Pittman murder sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole was torture not only McMillian. 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