After a week of interrogation by the police, Mr. Myers accused Mr. McMillian, a pulpwood worker, as Ms. Morrison's killer. How famous was Albert Walter McMillian? It tells the true story of Walter McMillian, who gets help from Bryan to appeal his murder conviction. In 1992, Ed Bradley reported that the wrong man might have been sitting on Alabama's death row. [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. There was no evidence proving Walter McMillians guilt, and a mountain of evidence proving his innocence and the polices and prosecutions racist complicity in his conviction. (334) 269-1803 [7][9] Myers pleaded guilty as a conspirator in the murder and received a 30-year prison term.[7]. Walter Miles McMillian's Geni Profile. Research the McMillian family Start your family tree now. Sexual or romantic relationships between blacks and whites were still very much taboo, especially out in the land of forests and plantations. An uncle of the murder victim, in fact, came by and told them she was killed, witnesses said. Before Walter McMillian was released from death row. It was the laughter of liberation. Jamie Foxx portrays McMillian and Michael B. Jordan stars as Stevenson. On March 3, 1993, the County District Attorney finally dismissed the charges. Genealogy for Walter Miles McMillian (1850 - 1922) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. I lost my life. 's office and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI) had "pressured [Myers] into lying about Mr. One of the many Alabama cases assigned to him is that of. He picked cotton with his family, went to the local colored school for a couple of years, and then went back to picking cotton at around age eight or nine. Walter "Johnny D." McMillian (October 27, 1941 - September 11, 2013) was an African American pulpwood worker from Monroeville, Alabama, who was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. 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. As Bryan Stevenson, McMillians future lawyer, wrote in his memoir Just Mercy, Tree work is notoriously demanding and dangerous. [10][11], The 2019 film Just Mercy dramatizes McMillian's case, and stars Jamie Foxx as McMillian and Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson, with direction by Destin Daniel Cretton, based on Stevenson's 2014 book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.[20]. They separate after Walter's release, but she remains involved in his life and in his care during his long-term illness. As a result, there have been no answers in Ronda Morrison's murder. "[6] He was held there, pre-trial, for 15 months. The way the content is organized, Walters legal case serves as the central storyline of the book. The Registry also maintains a more limited database of known exonerations prior to 1989. Morrison, who was white, had been bludgeoned, strangled and shot three times. Police, prosecutors, and judges are immune from judgments that require them to make payments to people victimized by abuse of authority. 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. From my cell you could smell the stench of burning flesh. When Minnie became pregnant in 1962, they were married. They had an affair, and when Kellys husband found out, things took a turn. Report an error or add more information about this case. 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. EJI presented this dramatic new evidence but it took six years of hearings and appeals before the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals finally ruled that Mr. McMillians conviction was unconstitutional. 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. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Until his dying wish he did not receive justice for his wrongful conviction. Birthplace: GA, United States. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. McMillian filed a civil lawsuit against state and local officials, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. They had three children and lived in a dilapidated house in Repton, about 10 miles south of Monroeville. 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. McMillians original attorneys in the trial, J.L. All he could do was sit there and listen as three witnesses for the prosecution lied in their testimonies. But when the word got out about their affair, he grew worried. For the first time in six years, Walter McMillian was a free man. I don't give a damn what your people say either. Today, more than 160 people who were on death row have been proved innocent and released. 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. His trial lasted only a day and a half. As a result, Alabama passed its 2001 compensation statute. memorial page for Albert Walter McMillian (13 Oct 1862-2 Oct 1948), Find a Grave Memorial ID 7915499, citing Oakland Cemetery, Saint Paul . Its narrative backbone is the story of Walter McMillian, whom Stevenson began representing in the late 1980s when he was on death row for killing a young white woman in Monroeville, Ala., the . We encourage you to research and examine these . 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. At least 48 people have been released from prison after serving time on death row since 1930 with significant evidence of their innocence. "[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. In a taped confession, Myers said he drove McMillian to the dry cleaners on the morning of Nov. 1, 1986, but McMillian entered the building alone. A 60 Minutes segment and other national press coverage about his case led to other exonerations. "[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. I'm going to put twelve people on a jury who are going to find your goddamn black ass guilty. Stevenson presented the newfound evidence at hearings and appeals before the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Starting with, ordinary life lets the reader know that this could happen to anyone of color. [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. During his interrogation, police said that they had witnesses who would testify that he had committed the Morrison murder along with Walter McMillian, a 46-year old African-American man who was notorious in the community because he had a white girlfriend. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against McMillian, holding that a county sheriff could not be sued for money damages. TRIAL: Defense asked for the trial to be moved from Monroe County to Baldwin County in Alabama due to the publicity. he sees the report about EJI for the first time. . We are all broken by something. Walter McMillian was married to Minnie McMillian for 25 years. Walters sense of humor hadnt failed him despite his six years on death row. There were dozens of Black people who could testify to his innocence but they were ignored. The reveal of the witness being pressured to testify proves that the laws that help prevent these things dont always work. In the 1988 trial, under a controversial Alabama doctrine called "judicial override", the judge imposed the death . The . 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.. 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. 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. Find Walter Mcmillian's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading online directory for contact information. Or we can deny our brokenness, foreswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity. When you are poor and under sentence of death you worry about a lot of things. HBOWalter McMillian (left) meets with his attorney, Bryan Stevenson. I find it very heartbreaking that even with inconsistencies and testimonies in favor of him, that he was still condemned because of the way he looked. .com is the online source for current local and national obituary news and a supportive community where friends and family can come together during times of loss and grieving to honor the memories of their loved ones with lasting personal tributes. Albert Walter McMillian. He was subjected to graphic questions about the nature of his and Kellys relationship, and he left the courtroom feeling uneasy. There was a tragic murder of eighteen-year-old Ronda Morrison. On the night Walter McMillian, a black woodcutter in rural Alabama, was . 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. He was a family friend, and the rumor was that hed been lynched for dating a white woman. A week later, prosecutors dismissed the charges. Please enable scripts and reload this page. The author did a great job about explaining the life of Mr. McMillians and the troubles he experienced due to the fact of being wrongly convicted for a crime he didnt commit. Mr. McMillian at his familys home on the day of his release after six years on death row. I think everybody needs to understand what happened because what happened today could happen tomorrow if we dont learn some lessons from this, said Stevenson on the day McMillians charges were dismissed. This is the true story of Walter McMillian, the wrongfully convicted man behind the film Just Mercy. 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. -Graham S. The timeline below shows where the character Walter McMillian appears in, Stevenson explains that he will focus on the story of, general, Stevenson is amused. 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. McMillian was accused of murdering an 18-year-old girl and was put on death row. 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. The false testimonies claimed that they had seen McMillian near the cleaners the morning of the murder. The real-life Walter McMillian (left) and lawyer Bryan Stevenson. 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. Myers was picked up for a different murder, that of a poor white woman named Vickie Pittman. [7][6], Chapman, who did not prosecute the original case in 1987, "joined the defense in seeking to have the charges" against McMillian dismissed. McMillian was looking at two options for his sentence: death by electrocution, or life in prison. [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. Mr. McMillian was sent back to his cell on death row, where he ultimately spent six years. Again, great work! He was allowed forty-five minutes of exercise per day and a few hours in the day room per week. 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. [6] However, Chapman did not agree that there had been a "deliberate effort to frame Mr. He implicated not just himself, but McMillian as well. 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. Birthdate: estimated between 1837 and 1897. The controversial case received national attention beginning in the fall of 1992. When asked whether his change of fortune restored his faith in the justice system, McMillian simply replied, No. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. On March 2, 1993, prosecutors dismissed charges against McMillian and he was released. McMillian was convicted by a jury of eleven whites and one African American. Although there are still injustices for colored people in todays society, it Definitely has gotten better and Im glad that were working towards that. During their first year together, they almost starved, with Walter working as a field hand for $14 per week. [7], In the fall of 1992, McMillian's case received national attention in the CBS News program 60 Minutes. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Yes. McMillian was then placed in a cell on death row where he waited for a year before his trial took place. [19] Subsequently, McMillian settled out of court with other officials for an undisclosed amount. About $35 was missing. Walter McMillian and Bryan Stevenson Equal Justice Initiative. I lost my job. McMillian's case served as a catalyst for Alabama's compensation statute, which was passed in 2001. He has won all but one of the five cases he's argued at the Court. [7][14], McMillian's "appellate lawyers discovered that prosecutors had withheld evidence and that the state's star witnesses had lied. 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. McMillian, was charged with first degree murder, the murder of a very well known white girl in the community. 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. This was adapted as an eponymous feature film, released in 2019. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. 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. on our list, Other I think this article not only spreads awareness on systematic racism and wrongful convictions, but it also starts a conversation on the inhumane conditions of prisons. Morrison, who was white, had been bludgeoned, strangled and shot three times. 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. Not to mention, the way the author starts the article is genius. 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. Within weeks, McMillian was transferred to a maximum-security state prison in Atmore, Alabama. 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. 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. It was too easy for the state to convict someone for that crime and then have him sentenced to death. 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. The author named chapter five after W.E.B. With few ordinary comforts in his life, the attention of women was something Walter did not easily resist.. "Michael has. 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? 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. Equal Justice InitiativeWalter McMillian with his family after his release from prison. The people of Monroeville, Alabama was shaken up with fear and anger by Morrison's murder. Walter is related to Jane Marie Price and Jaline Renae McMillan as well as 3 additional people. 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. "[9] D.A. (including. By the 1950s, however, cotton became less profitable, and the state of Alabama helped many white farmers transition to growing and chopping timber. But we keep fighting.. Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. For months, the police could not solve this case. "[6], McMillian was known in the small community for having an affair with a white woman, Karen Kelly. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Walter McMillian passed away on September 11, 2013.7. This article is informative and well written! From 1990 to 1993, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals turned down four appeals. "[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. How Racism, Police Incompetence, And Lying Witnesses Put Walter McMillian On Death Row For Six Years. 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. They tortured me with the promise of execution for six years. The officials involved in prosecuting McMillian received no punishment or removal from their positions. 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. Teachers and parents! We welcome new information from any source about exonerations already on our list and about cases not in the Registry that might be exonerations. Its really infuriating that the people involved received no backlash. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. / Bryan Stevenson speaks with reporters after oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012. [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. 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. Mr. McMillian was held on death row prior to being convicted and sentenced to death. A deputy then revealed to McMillian that the initial charge was only a way to impound his truck. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. 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. The jury recommended a life in prison, but judge Robert E. Lee Key, Jr. overrode their recommendation and imposed the death penalty. And he had an alibi: He was at a family fish fry the morning Ronda Morrison was murdered. 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. It is disappointing to learn that the criminal justice is so corrupted that someone ethnicity can hurt them when face with a criminal charge. One of his friends said they were working on that same truck that morning; the transmission was out of it. [9], Following his own trial and sentencing, Ralph Bernard Myers told McMillian's trial counsel that the testimony he gave "against McMillian was false. We invite you to learn more about the clients featured in the book below. Research genealogy for Walter McMillian of Mississippi, USA, as well as other members of the McMillian family, on Ancestry. Instant downloads of all 1682 LitChart PDFs 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. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. Those six years on death row traumatized McMillian in many unthinkable ways. In 1986, an 18-year-old white woman named Ronda Morrison was murdered in downtown Monroeville, Alabama. They knew their statements against a white mans perjured testimony didnt stand a chance.4, McMillians trial lasted two days. Still, the police were desperate to wrap up the Morrison case, and they felt that this was their opportunity. The fact that this man was innocent, and everyone knew, he was still guilty. No. 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. They had 2 children: Isabella Mae McMillan and one other child. Stevenson opens chapter five with over a page of direct quotations from McMillian's sister and other family members. The crime sent shock waves of fear and anger through the small community. His truck was later examined by Bill Hooks who claimed to have seen McMillians truck at the cleaners. The man was Russell Charley. . 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. . Their central case is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), an independent pulpwood worker and family man known to most as Johnny D. He . DuBois's short story "Of the Coming of John", which he discusses on page 100-101. They lived in a sharecropper's shack. McMillian later developed dementia and died in 2013, but his name lives on at the center of the criminal justice reform movement. American wrongly convicted of murder (19412013), According to the 1993 appeal, Judge R.E.L. Judge Robert E. Lee Key overrode the jurys sentence of life imprisonment and sentenced Mr. McMillian to death by electrocution. Part of the evidence revealed a tape where a witness confessed to having been pressured to frame McMillan. Explore genealogy for Walter McMillian born 1941 Monroe County, Alabama, United States died 2013 including ancestors + more in the free family tree community. Walter McMillan spent six years on death row for a crime he didn't commit, but even after the Alabama resident was exonerated, he remained tormented by his years behind bars. 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? Tate replied, "I don't give a damn what you say or what you do. McMillian clearly recalled the moment the news got to them. "[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. Ariana Brockington. Walter McMillian, who was born on October 27, 1941, lived in a black settlement near Monroeville where he "grew up picking cotton. When he asked for an explanation, they loudly and angrily said that he was being charged with sodomy for assaulting a man. Advertisement. [9][Notes 5], In 1992 the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in McMillian v. State 594 So. Sheriff Tate was never removed from office; he retired in 2019. They threatened me for six years. 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. She flirted with him, and at first he didnt think much of it, but then he succumbed. That one testimony of Hooks was all it took to convict him for the murder of Ronda Morrison. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. 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.
