In the 1988 trial, under a controversial Alabama doctrine called "judicial override", the judge imposed the death . My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC), Voting Rights Protests of 1965 (Selma-to-Montgomery Marches). 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. 416 pp. I feel like they done put me on death row, too. The nearly all-white jury convicted Mr. McMillian of capital murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole. During their first year together, they almost starved, with Walter working as a field hand for $14 per week. "[6] He was held there, pre-trial, for 15 months. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. It was clear that Myers and McMillian didnt know each other; Myers word was the sole evidence connecting McMillian to the crime. Another time journalism helped bring justice into worldview was in the Walter McMillian case. 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. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. I lost my life. The trial lasted only a day and a half. 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? [19] Subsequently, McMillian settled out of court with other officials for an undisclosed amount. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. How famous was Albert Walter McMillian? This article was very sad and eye opening for the treatment of black men in a still prejudice south. And thats how his affair with a white woman 18 years his junior became the talk of the town. Walter McMillian spent six years on Alabamas death row for a murder he didnt commit. "[9] McMillian's attorneys from the Equal Justice Initiative filed a petition for a new trial alleging various constitutional violations, including "that a key state witness had recanted his testimony, that the appellant's conviction had been obtained by perjured testimony, and that the evidence of perjury was newly discovered." SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. Stevenson opens chapter five with over a page of direct quotations from McMillian's sister and other family members. At the time of her murder, Walter McMillian was at a church fish fry, where he was seen by dozens of witnesses, one of whom was a police officer.[10][11]. Its really infuriating that the people involved received no backlash. For months, the police could not solve this case. Clients. The sheriff arranged for Mr. McMillian to be placed on death row before his trialwhen he hadnt even been convicted of a crime. Walter McMillian, who was born on October 27, 1941, lived in a black settlement near Monroeville where he "grew up picking cotton. Testimony of the trial lasted a day and a half. I am at least happy to find out that Mr. McMillians made it out of deaths hand due to his lawyer, however this is one of many cases and not all of them end in a happy way. The police wouldnt buy it, and so Myers said he had information on the Morrison case. Bryan Stevenson, McMillian's defense attorney, raised awareness on the CBS News program 60 Minutes. I feel sick about the six years that [McMillian] has spent in prison and the part I played in keeping him there. 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. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. He was a family friend, and the rumor was that hed been lynched for dating a white woman. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. [5] In 1986 he had been married to Minnie McMillian for 25 years and they had nine children. Throughout the case, Stevenson battles political and legal maneuverings, as well as overt and institutional racism, all in the name of fighting for . Within weeks, McMillian was transferred to a maximum-security state prison in Atmore, Alabama. When he asked for an explanation, they loudly and angrily said that he was being charged with sodomy for assaulting a man. based on a true story, just mercy(2019) follows civil rights defense attorney bryan stevenson (michael b. jordan) as he recounts his experiences and details the case of a condemned death row prisoner, walter mcmillian (jamie foxx), whom he fought to free, as he becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and 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. As a result, a stunning number of innocent people have been sentenced to death. But when the word got out about their affair, he grew worried. 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. "[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. 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. As a result, there have been no answers in Ronda Morrison's murder. The McMillian family: Walter McMillian had a family of believers. Mr. McMillian was arrested, and in an extraordinary move, was immediately . Seven months passed and every one of the polices leads went nowhere. Myers heard popping sounds, and he found McMillian standing over the victim with a gun in his hand. Judge Key warns Stevenson not to take on the case of, death row inmates. The story of Walter McMillian in Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is the one that I found the most intriguing. The crime sent shock waves of fear and anger through the small community. 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. But the overwhelming evidence of innocence ultimately forced the State to agree to drop the charges. [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. "Just Mercy," a movie about the case, opens in theaters this . Journalist Pete Earley covered it in his book Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town (1995). This story is just one of the many injustices colored people must experience. WRONGFUL CONVICTION 2 In Monroeville, Alabama November 1, 1986, a white woman by the name of Ronda Morrison was murdered. For the most accurate data, please search on the Detailed View page. The case had generated an unusual amount of media coverage. [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. The website is updated daily, frequently with exonerations that occurred in the past. That one testimony of Hooks was all it took to convict him for the murder of Ronda Morrison. The 45-year-old self-employed logger had worked for several people in the community and had no criminal history. Mr. McMillians experience on death row was traumatic. His conviction was wrong The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against McMillian in a civil lawsuit filed against state and local officials in Alabama, citing that a county sheriff cant be sued for money damages. The visits from his family were the only thing getting him by in his time there. But the laughter today felt very different. Walter McMillian was among the first exonerees from death row in the modern era. But we keep fighting.. . We in the African American community have always known that the criminal justice system is a threat, that it will take people who are innocent or wrongly convicted and it will treat people unfairly, Stevenson said in an interview with Essence magazine. The jury recommended a life sentence, but on September 19, 1988, the judge overrode the jurys recommendation and imposed the death penalty. I'm going to put twelve people on a jury who are going to find your goddamn black ass guilty. "[13][5] There was no physical evidence implicating McMillian. Home; . McMillian recalls his time there as a terrible experience. In 1988, Bryan Stevenson met Walter McMillian and began working to appeal his conviction and death sentence. This is the true story of Walter McMillian, the wrongfully convicted man behind the film Just Mercy. Walter with friends and Stevenson The McMillian family was known to be a "large, tight-knit family" made up Walter, his wife, Minnie, and five children. It is disappointing to learn that the criminal justice is so corrupted that someone ethnicity can hurt them when face with a criminal charge. I lost my reputation. Equal Justice InitiativeWalter McMillian with his family after his release from prison. 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. Soon, he went from being a man who had an interracial affair to someone capable of murder. TRIAL: Defense asked for the trial to be moved from Monroe County to Baldwin County in Alabama due to the publicity. EJI filed civil rights lawsuits against state and local officials for incarcerating Mr. McMillian on death row before his trial in violation of his rights. The real-life Walter McMillian (left) and lawyer Bryan Stevenson. This left McMillian even more clueless as they didnt provide him with an explanation for how or why he was being charged with such a crime. The trial began on August 15, 1988 and lasted only a day and a half. Despite having various witnesses on his side, it seemed useless. Stevenson presented the newfound evidence at hearings and appeals before the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. The prosecution presented their three witnesses: Myers and the two men who said they saw McMillians low-rider truck outside the dry cleaners on the morning of the murder. Police, prosecutors, and judges are immune from judgments that require them to make payments to people victimized by abuse of authority. Mr. McMillian at his familys home on the day of his release after six years on death row. 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. They tortured me with the promise of execution for six years. Simplified. McMillian clearly recalled the moment the news got to them. Walter married Maggie Ella McMillan (born Miller) on month day 1908, at age 24 at marriage place. In 1986, an 18-year-old white woman named Ronda Morrison was murdered in downtown Monroeville, Alabama. Mr. McMillian was sent back to his cell on death row, where he ultimately spent six years. [9], Following his own trial and sentencing, Ralph Bernard Myers told McMillian's trial counsel that the testimony he gave "against McMillian was false. It was truly heart wrenching that all of the people were apart of the crime were not criminally charged nor punished, yet the only person who was punished was the innocent man. In what The New York Times described as "an extraordinary move", McMillian "was immediately sent to Alabama's Death Row, in Holman State Prison, Atmore, which is usually reserved for convicted murderers awaiting execution. I have suffered pain, agony, loss, and fear in degrees that I had never imagined possible, he testified in 1993. Police arrested McMillian (known to some friends as "Johnny D"), a black man, in 1987 and charged him with murdering an 18-year-old white woman named Ronda Morrison at a Monroeville, Alabama dry . In the 1988 trial, under a controversial Alabama doctrine called "judicial override", the judge imposed the death penalty, although the jury had voted for a sentence of life imprisonment. 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. information about the Registry, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct. Equal Justice InitiativeWalter McMillian spent six years on Alabamas death row for a murder he didnt commit. He had a large, tight-knit family and several children with his wife Minnie, but, following an affair with a white woman, Walter was falsely accused and convicted of murdering a different white woman. When you are poor and under sentence of death you worry about a lot of things. Just Mercy tells the story of EJI's clients, from Walter McMillian and Anthony Ray Hinton who were exonerated from Alabama's death row to Joe Sullivan and Ian Manuel who won release after being sentenced to die in prison for nonhomicide crimes in Florida when they were just 13 years old. She was shot three times in the back, and it looked like money had been taken from the cash register. The jury then found McMillian guilty despite that there was no physical evidence that linked him to the crime. [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. Struggling with distance learning? "[3] Monroe County was described by The Guardian as "a remote, dirt-poor region of pine trees and bean farms". Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. He had lost his logging business and sold car parts until he became too ill to work. "Michael has. 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. Stevenson, now 60, continues his social justice work in Alabama. The suspect, who was from a prominent family then fled town. 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. Stevenson finishes by calling on, of the other witness testimonies. Less than two years later, he was convicted of murder a murder he didnt commit. 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. McMillian had explained to Sheriff Tate shortly after his arrest that he was at the fish fry on the morning of November 1. (including. One of the many Alabama cases assigned to him is that of. You know theyll try to kill you if you actually get to the bottom of everything. McMillian and his wife, Minnie, met when when they were teenagers and married after she became pregnant in 1962. McMillian." McMillian. When she was five years old, her mother died of consumption, weakened from the grueling delivery of Mary's younger sister and heartbroken by the baby's untimely death. On the night Walter McMillian, a black woodcutter in rural Alabama, was . Ariana Brockington. I believe that needs to be discussed more, and I am glad you included how it had such a negative impact on McMillian and was traumatic. 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. They had met as teenagers. 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. He had about half a dozen of his friends and family members testifying that they were with him at the time of the crime. Bryan Stevenson and EJI received death threats. [emailprotected], Mr. McMillians testimony specifically addressed the failure to provide adequate legal help to people in prison and on death row. On April 1, 1993, Mr. McMillian spoke to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about the urgent need to end the death penalty. Walters case complicated the debate in very graphic ways. The only evidence connecting McMillian to the killing was testimony by Myers, in line with his recorded statement, and two other witnesses who claimed to have seen McMillians "low-rider" truck outside the building at the time that the crime allegedly occurred. Supporters celebrated Mr. McMillians release. When he visited McMillian in prison,[10][16][Notes 4][17] McMillian maintained his innocence. CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town By Pete Earley Bantam. We encourage you to research and examine these . 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 Bryan Stevenson took on Mr. McMillians case in postconviction. There are numerous examples of this shown throughout the book. In front of the camera, In his funeral speech, Stevenson explains that , Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Amazon Removes Christmas Products Featuring Images Of Auschwitz After Online Blowback, Toxic Foam Washes Up On Indian Beach And People Keep Taking Selfies In It, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. on our list, Other No fingerprints, no fibers not a single piece of physical evidence connecting McMillian to the crime scene. "[Notes 3][4], On September 19, 1988, Judge Robert E. Lee Key, Jr., overruled the jury's recommendation of a life sentence and imposed the death penalty. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Walter McMillian passed away on September 11, 2013.7. 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 . The author named chapter five after W.E.B. He was allowed forty-five minutes of exercise per day and a few hours in the day room per week. "[5] It emerged that Sheriff Tate and investigators with the Monroe County D.A. 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. But as much as his family fought against the system, the system had a way of taking hold. He has won all but one of the five cases he's argued at the Court. In 1998, he joined other survivors at a national conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty attended by more than 1,000 lawyers, law students, professors, and criminal justice reform advocates. It was founded in 2012 in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. 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. Although there are still injustices for colored people in todays society, it Definitely has gotten better and Im glad that were working towards that. They put me on death row for six years! Again, great work! Walters sense of humor hadnt failed him despite his six years on death row. Family History Search. 53 records for Walter Mcmillian. Each testimony had inconsistencies in their stories, but that did not matter. A half worked for several people in prison and on death row for six years that [ ]... 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Are numerous examples walter mcmillian family this shown throughout the community and had no criminal history and an! The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about the case, opens in theaters this McMillian & # x27 ; s and. Him despite his six years held there, pre-trial, for 15 months, perjury or False Accusation Official! Left ) and lawyer Bryan Stevenson, now 60, continues his social Justice in! To work i had never imagined possible, he grew worried find your goddamn black guilty. His community 11, 2013.7 back, and fear in degrees that i found the intriguing! 25 years and they had nine children $ 14 per week to his! Years on death row for a murder he didnt commit Alabama Court of criminal appeals trial on! That require them to make payments to people victimized by abuse of authority his junior became the of. Sentenced to death it seemed useless his trialwhen he hadnt even been convicted of murder taken from cash... 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