He also filed civil lawsuits for his sentencing to death row. 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 controversial case received national attention beginning in the fall of 1992. McMillian and his wife, Minnie, met when when they were teenagers and married after she became pregnant in 1962. 2d 1289 (Ala.Cr.App.1992) denied the claims by McMillian's attorneys. He became uncharacteristically emotional. As a result, there have been no answers in Ronda Morrison's murder. Walter McMillian is in the back row. [7][6], Chapman, who did not prosecute the original case in 1987, "joined the defense in seeking to have the charges" against McMillian dismissed. Stevenson, now 60, continues his social justice work in Alabama. It was clear that Myers and McMillian didnt know each other; Myers word was the sole evidence connecting McMillian to the crime. McMillian and his wife, Minnie, met when when they were teenagers and married after she became pregnant in 1962. The fact that this man was innocent, and everyone knew, he was still guilty. 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. 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. In the 1988 trial, under a controversial Alabama doctrine called "judicial override", the judge imposed the death . You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. McMillian's case served as a catalyst for Alabama's compensation statute, which was passed in 2001. In a 2015 NPR interview, Stevenson described how that phone call was a "very, very bizarre start to my career and to the work that I was doing in Alabama." Stevenson recounts the story Myers gave during. His case lacked evidence but he was still. One of the many Alabama cases assigned to him is that of. Report an error or add more information about this case. 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. 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. "[5] It emerged that Sheriff Tate and investigators with the Monroe County D.A. But when the word got out about their affair, he grew worried. McMillian was completely clueless as to why this was happening to him. It is disappointing to learn that the criminal justice is so corrupted that someone ethnicity can hurt them when face with a criminal charge. Thirty-six of the nearly two hundred convicts on death row are there because of override."[5]. "[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. Myers heard popping sounds, and he found McMillian standing over the victim with a gun in his hand. He saw Walter as the perfect way to do that, and this is because of his race and how . But we keep fighting.. Mr. McMillian was an unlikely suspect. Equal Justice InitiativeWalter McMillian with his family after his release from prison. The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the Newkirk Center for Science & Society at University of California Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. No fingerprints, no fibers not a single piece of physical evidence connecting McMillian to the crime scene. This article was very sad and eye opening for the treatment of black men in a still prejudice south. Walter McMillian (1941 - 2013) . 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. Aside from having a misdemeanor charge from a barroom fight, he had a clean record and no other charges to his name. We have a choice. Stevenson presented the newfound evidence at hearings and appeals before the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Stevenson recounts the story that Ralph Myers gave to police. Mr. McMillian was sent back to his cell on death row, where he ultimately spent six years. 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. [14] Key remarked that "McMillian deserved to be executed for the brutal killing of a young lady in the first full flower of adulthood. 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 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. Bryan Stevenson discusses the outrageous miscarriage of justice in the case of Walter McMillian. Resistance to acknowledging Mr. McMillians innocence was intense. 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. He knew it, his family knew it, and his friends knew it. The trial lasted only a day and a half. Then, read the harrowing last words of 23 executed criminals. You know theyll try to kill you if you actually get to the bottom of everything. What seemed to bring him attention is that hed had an affair with a married white woman. 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. At least 48 people have been released from prison after serving time on death row since 1930 with significant evidence of their innocence. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. In addition, the two witnesses who had testified that they had seen McMillians truck retracted their testimony, and admitted that they lied at trial. Stevenson was in his 20s and eager to take on the case, even though the unfortunately named judge discouraged him from doing so. McMillian's case served as a catalyst for Alabama's compensation statute, which was passed in 2001. But the jury 11 white members and one black member took the prosecutions word. In addition, one of his sons had married a white woman. 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. 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. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. 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. His time spent in prison was torture not only to McMillian but to his family and friends as well. "[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. Sexual or romantic relationships between blacks and whites were still very much taboo, especially out in the land of forests and plantations. After a week of interrogation by the police, Mr. Myers accused Mr. McMillian, a pulpwood worker, as Ms. Morrison's killer. He was subjected to graphic questions about the nature of his and Kellys relationship, and he left the courtroom feeling uneasy. He was allowed forty-five minutes of exercise per day and a few hours in the day room per week. I feel like they done put me on death row, too. 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 . 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. Walter McMillian was married to Minnie McMillian for 25 years. Equal Justice Initiative With his conviction overturned, Walter McMillian was released from death row in 1993. 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. The . With few ordinary comforts in his life, the attention of women was something Walter did not easily resist.. Karen confirms that Myers never met, Stevenson describes the situation preceding, The hearing begins. Meanwhile, six witnesses testified in McMillians defense, saying he was hosting a fish fry at his house during the crime. And he had an alibi: He was at a family fish fry the morning Ronda Morrison was murdered. And this case had given him lots of fodder. Walter McMillian worked hard providing for his wife and their three children. Last Updated December 25, 2019, 8:30 AM. 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. 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. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Albert Walter McMillian. 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 Morrison case had generated considerable publicity in Monroe County, which was 40 percent black, and so Walter McMillians trial was moved down south to Baldwin County which was 86 percent white. 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. On February 23, 1993, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed McMillians conviction and ordered a new trial. They had 2 children: Isabella Mae McMillan and one other child. Walter (Johnny D.) McMillian was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1988 and sentenced to death. He first encountered Walter while he was on death row (20). "[3] Monroe County was described by The Guardian as "a remote, dirt-poor region of pine trees and bean farms". Walter McMillian died in 2013: he was 71-years-old. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. 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. I lost my I lost my dignity.. After reading about the remarkable life and work of attorney Bryan Stevenson, whos saved hundreds from prison, learn all about the case of the Central Park Five, a group of non-white teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of brutally raping a white woman in the 1980s. 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. A 60 Minutes segment and other national press coverage about his case led to other exonerations. "[9] D.A. 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. Suddenly, State Troopers, city cars, sheriffs, and deputies surrounded his car. A deputy then revealed to McMillian that the initial charge was only a way to impound his truck. I don't give a damn what your people say either. [2] Stevenson featured this early case of his career in a TED talk and in his memoir Just Mercy (2014). . This was adapted as an eponymous feature film, released in 2019. [3] A journalist described him as a "black pulpwood worker". Born on Oct. 27, 1941, McMillian grew up in one of several poor black settlements outside Monroeville. 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. Stevenson was motivated to take McMillian's case because of the use of the judge override. The fact that the testimonial of the witnesses that saw McMillian near the cleaners the morning of the murder didnt even add up, and nobody seemed to care is upsetting. The McMillian family: Walter McMillian had a family of believers. In 1988, Bryan Stevenson met Walter McMillian and began working to appeal his conviction and death sentence. (334) 269-1803 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. Myers was picked up for a different murder, that of a poor white woman named Vickie Pittman. 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. Financial TimesWalter McMillian (left) and Bryan Stevenson after McMillians conviction was overturned in 1993. 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. . October 10, 1995. 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. 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. 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. 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 he asked for an explanation, they loudly and angrily said that he was being charged with sodomy for assaulting a man. 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. Part of the evidence revealed a tape where a witness confessed to having been pressured to frame McMillan. He had lost his logging business and sold car parts until he became too ill to work. "Michael has. Mr. McMillians experience on death row was traumatic. He came to attention because he had an affair with a married white woman. 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. 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. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. She was shot three times in the back, and it looked like money had been taken from the cash register. Another 267 words (19 lines of text) covering the years 1775, 1790, 1452, 1454, 1540, 1555, 1670, 1753, 1670, 1745 and 1745 are included under the topic Early McMillan History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible. On March 2, 1993, prosecutors dismissed charges against McMillian and he was released. No. McMillian clearly recalled the moment the news got to them. us about an exoneration that we may have missed, Correct an error or add information about an exoneration [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. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. 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. They have also lived in Winter Park, FL and Lake Mary, FL. 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. 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. .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. 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