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. Despite having various witnesses on his side, it seemed useless. 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. 1 Colonization and Settlement (1500-1763), 2 Revolution and Early Republic (1754-1801), 4 Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), 5 Emergence of Modern America (1877-1929), 4 Late Middle Ages-Renaissance-Reformation Europe (1300-1648), 3 Post-Classical History (600 CE-1492 CE), HS 1302 United States History since 1877, SP 3392 Language Variation and Dialectology of Spanish, Michael B. Ross, The Execution of Innocence,, College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences. 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. / Walter McMillian (left) celebrates with family after Bryan Stevenson won his release from death row in 1993. The nearly all-white jury convicted Mr. McMillian of capital murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole. [9], Following his own trial and sentencing, Ralph Bernard Myers told McMillian's trial counsel that the testimony he gave "against McMillian was false. Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures. 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. Meanwhile, six witnesses testified in McMillians defense, saying he was hosting a fish fry at his house during the crime. Stevenson's uncle died in prison . He had about half a dozen of his friends and family members testifying that they were with him at the time of the crime. 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. As a black man living in southern Alabama, McMillian didnt stand a chance. This story is incredibly heartbreaking and sadly not very uncommon. And thats how his affair with a white woman 18 years his junior became the talk of the town. 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. This article is informative and well written! 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.. "[10], On February 23, 1993, in his fifth appeal to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, the judges ruled 50 to reverse McMillian's conviction and grant him a new trial. 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. McMillian recalls his time there as a terrible experience. Walter McMillian spent six years on Alabamas death row for a murder he didnt commit. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Part of the evidence revealed a tape where a witness confessed to having been pressured to frame McMillan. Judge Key warns Stevenson not to take on the case of, death row inmates. 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. DuBois's short story "Of the Coming of John", which he discusses on page 100-101. His trial lasted only a day and a half. Financial TimesWalter McMillian (left) and Bryan Stevenson after McMillians conviction was overturned in 1993. McMillian was convicted by a jury of eleven whites and one African American. [7][9] Myers pleaded guilty as a conspirator in the murder and received a 30-year prison term.[7]. As Bryan Stevenson, McMillians future lawyer, wrote in his memoir Just Mercy, Tree work is notoriously demanding and dangerous. [6] McMillian held two jobs and "no criminal record other than a misdemeanor charge stemming [from] a barroom fight". How Racism, Police Incompetence, And Lying Witnesses Put Walter McMillian On Death Row For Six Years. Death: Immediate Family: Son of Laban Parks McMillian and Ada Kirk. 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. 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. Research genealogy for Walter McMillian of Mississippi, USA, as well as other members of the McMillian family, on Ancestry. Police could not solve the crime. While McMillian did receive an undisclosed amount of compensation, it was less than he had hoped for. Walter McMillian worked hard providing for his wife and their three children. on our list, Other For months, the police could not solve this case. Walter often sought better work to support his family. Jamie Foxx plays Walter McMillian in the film, Just Mercy. 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. industry in its place. He was subjected to graphic questions about the nature of his and Kellys relationship, and he left the courtroom feeling uneasy. Suddenly, State Troopers, city cars, sheriffs, and deputies surrounded his car. Sentimentality about Lees story grew even as the harder truths of the book took no roots. Aside from having a misdemeanor charge from a barroom fight, he had a clean record and no other charges to his name. When he asked for an explanation, they loudly and angrily said that he was being charged with sodomy for assaulting a man. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Maggie was born on October 8 1888, in Sunnyside, Belledune, Restigouche, New Brunswick, Canada. memorial page for Albert Walter McMillian (13 Oct 1862-2 Oct 1948), Find a Grave Memorial ID 7915499, citing Oakland Cemetery, Saint Paul . 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. Walter Lester McMillian, 72, of Fancy Gap, died May 26, 2002, in Beverly Health Care-Blue Ridge. After six months with no leads or suspects, their attention focused on Walter McMillian. Walter had 3 siblings: Isabelle Page (born Mcmillan) and 2 other siblings. "[6], McMillian was known in the small community for having an affair with a white woman, Karen Kelly. I feel sick about the six years that [McMillian] has spent in prison and the part I played in keeping him there. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. Kellys husband called McMillian to testify in their divorce proceedings. 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. 's office and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI) had "pressured [Myers] into lying about Mr. 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. HBOWalter McMillian (left) meets with his attorney, Bryan Stevenson. 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. 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. Research genealogy for Walter Mcmillian of Florida, as well as other members of the Mcmillian family, on Ancestry. Its so clear they will believe someone that had inconsistent and false testimony over many people confirming his alibi. "[6] He was held there, pre-trial, for 15 months. To him and his family, the money he got from picking cotton was worth a lot more than an education. [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. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. 2. Supporters celebrated Mr. McMillians release. [14] Key remarked that "McMillian deserved to be executed for the brutal killing of a young lady in the first full flower of adulthood. By the 1950s, however, cotton became less profitable, and the state of Alabama helped many white farmers transition to growing and chopping timber. "[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. I'm going to put twelve people on a jury who are going to find your goddamn black ass guilty. Teachers and parents! Were going to keep all you niggers from running around with these white girls. This was adapted as an eponymous feature film, released in 2019. "[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. 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 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. [6] However, Chapman did not agree that there had been a "deliberate effort to frame Mr. Walter McMillian. McMillian claims innocence, but in 1988 he is convicted by a jury of young Morrison's murder. 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. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. The trial began on August 15, 1988 and lasted only a day and a half. Mr. McMillian at his familys home on the day of his release after six years on death row. 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. It was appealed to the United States Supreme Court,[19] which ruled against McMillian, holding that a county sheriff could not be sued for monetary damages. [3] I lost my life. 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. They had three children and lived in a dilapidated house in Repton, about 10 miles south of Monroeville. Mr. McMillian was an unlikely suspect. How famous was Albert Walter McMillian? 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. Before Walter McMillian was released from death row. 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. Hooks later testified at McMillians trial. This was Alabama in 1986. Yes. 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 . McMillian was then placed in a cell on death row where he waited for a year before his trial took place. [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. Research the McMillian family Start your family tree now. 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. This web page shows only a small excerpt of our McMillan research. In front of the camera, In his funeral speech, Stevenson explains that , Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. The smell of someone you know burning to death is the most painful and nauseating experience on this earth. [7], In the fall of 1992, McMillian's case received national attention in the CBS News program 60 Minutes. "[5] This practice, called judicial override, allows "elected trial judges to override jury verdicts of life and impose death sentences." It was founded in 2012 in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. On April 1, 1993, Mr. McMillian spoke to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about the urgent need to end the death penalty. According to the Equal Justice Initiative of Montgomery, Alabama, "No capital sentencing procedure in the United States has come under more criticism as unreliable, unpredictable, and arbitrary" than the judge override. McMillian already had a target on his back from his affair with Karen Kelly, and the police had that target in their sights. On March 2, 1993, prosecutors dismissed charges against McMillian and he was released. Alabama Releases Man Held on Death Row for Six Years, Walter McMillian's Statement to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Wrongfully Convicted Man Recalls Death Row, 122 Commerce Street Montgomery, AL 36104 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. McMillian filed a civil lawsuit against state and local officials, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. When Chestnut and Boynton filed the standard motion to have, after Herberts execution, Stevenson visits death row to catch up with several new clients, including, an entire community hidden away in the woods. When Stevenson first enters the trailer of, invested their hopes in him, and he sees a parallel in the anguish felt by, Stevenson describes his growing familiarity with, because they were working together on the morning of Rondas death. 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