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. Bryan Stevenson took on Mr. McMillians case in postconviction. EP.32 The case of Walter McMillian-New way of looking at the death penalty Walter "Johnny D." McMillian (October 27, 1941 - September 11, 2013)[1] was an African-American pulpwood worker from Monroeville, Alabama, who was wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. 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. They had an affair, and when Kellys husband found out, things took a turn. Its so clear they will believe someone that had inconsistent and false testimony over many people confirming his alibi. There was a tragic murder of eighteen-year-old Ronda Morrison. He became uncharacteristically emotional. Within weeks, McMillian was transferred to a maximum-security state prison in Atmore, Alabama. His sole criminal record was a suspended sentence for a bar fight. A 60 Minutes segment and other national press coverage about his case led to other exonerations. Walter McMillian photographed outside of his home surrounded by family and friends. He had about half a dozen of his friends and family members testifying that they were with him at the time of the crime. Like Walter, she is from the poor black community just outside of Monroeville. Suddenly, State Troopers, city cars, sheriffs, and deputies surrounded his car. He wasnt just enraged that his wife was cheating on him she was cheating on him with a black man. His truck was later examined by Bill Hooks who claimed to have seen McMillians truck at the cleaners. 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 . I have suffered pain, agony, loss, and fear in degrees that I had never imagined possible, he testified in 1993. 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. They had three children and lived in a dilapidated house in Repton, about 10 miles south of Monroeville. 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. As a black man living in southern Alabama, McMillian didnt stand a chance. Seven months passed and every one of the polices leads went nowhere. I get that Morrison was at a disadvantage when faced against white men for that exact reason, but if the testimonies were so obviously inconsistent, they should have known better. After six months with no leads or suspects, their attention focused on Walter McMillian. Walters sense of humor hadnt failed him despite his six years on death row. 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. 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. After listening to it, they flipped the tape over and discovered a recorded conversation in which Myers complained bitterly that he was being forced to implicate McMillian, whom he did not know, for a crime neither of them had any role in. "[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." The way the content is organized, Walters legal case serves as the central storyline of the book. The following week, on March 2, Circuit Court Judge Pamela W. Baschab ruled on the motion, dismissing all charges against McMillian. 53 records for Walter Mcmillian. A deputy then revealed to McMillian that the initial charge was only a way to impound his truck. Sheriff Tate was never removed from office; he retired in 2019. Mr. McMillian was an unlikely suspect. 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. [9][5] She had been shot numerous times from behind. It was clear that Myers and McMillian didnt know each other; Myers word was the sole evidence connecting McMillian to the crime. But as much as his family fought against the system, the system had a way of taking hold. Equal Justice InitiativeWalter McMillian with his family after his release from prison. Decades later, McMillian found himself the object of one pretty white womans flirtation. As Bryan Stevenson, McMillians future lawyer, wrote in his memoir Just Mercy, Tree work is notoriously demanding and dangerous. [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. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. 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. 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. He was allowed forty-five minutes of exercise per day and a few hours in the day room per week. 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". Not to mention, the way the author starts the article is genius. Four former death row inmates have been released from prison just this year after their innocence became apparent: Kirk Bloodsworth, Federico Macias, Walter McMillian, and Gregory Wilhoit. 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. Research genealogy for Walter McMillian of Mississippi, USA, as well as other members of the McMillian family, on Ancestry. Starting with, ordinary life lets the reader know that this could happen to anyone of color. LitCharts Teacher Editions. "[6][Notes 1][5] McMillian was represented by attorney J. L. Chestnut. 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. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. They had already received previous backlash from the public because his son was known for marrying a white woman. 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. Aside from having a misdemeanor charge from a barroom fight, he had a clean record and no other charges to his name. 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]. / Walter McMillian (left) celebrates with family after Bryan Stevenson won his release from death row in 1993. Each testimony had inconsistencies in their stories, but that did not matter. After Mr. McMillians release in 1993, he worked hard to educate people about the death penalty, sharing his experiences with students, community groups, and elected officials across the country. McMillian clearly recalled the moment the news got to them. HBOWalter McMillian (left) meets with his attorney, Bryan Stevenson. Not at all.. What happened to Walter McMillian in a small Alabama town in 1987 has long been pointed to as a classic example of a miscarriage of justice. "[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. They threatened me for six years. He first encountered Walter while he was on death row (20). The fact that this man was innocent, and everyone knew, he was still guilty. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. The . He met Karen Kelly, who was 25 and unhappily married, at the Waffle House where he ate breakfast. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. "[6] He was held there, pre-trial, for 15 months. About $35 was missing. [6] McMillian held two jobs and "no criminal record other than a misdemeanor charge stemming [from] a barroom fight". From my cell you could smell the stench of burning flesh. He claimed that McMillian's exoneration "proved the system worked. We welcome new information from any source about exonerations already on our list and about cases not in the Registry that might be exonerations. 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. McMillian, was charged with first degree murder, the murder of a very well known white girl in the community. The jury then found McMillian guilty despite that there was no physical evidence that linked him to the crime. [2] Stevenson featured this early case of his career in a TED talk and in his memoir Just Mercy (2014). Tate replied, "I don't give a damn what you say or what you do. Stevenson finishes by calling on, of the other witness testimonies. The trial lasted only a day and a half. This article is informative and well written! Myers heard popping sounds, and he found McMillian standing over the victim with a gun in his hand. Walters case complicated the debate in very graphic ways. Sponsored by Ancestry. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. One of his friends said they were working on that same truck that morning; the transmission was out of it. They knew their statements against a white mans perjured testimony didnt stand a chance.4, McMillians trial lasted two days. Journalist Pete Earley covered it in his book Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town (1995). 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