Myers said he heard popping sounds, and that when he entered the building he found McMillian, with a gun, standing over the dead body of Morrison and robbing her. It was a pleasure to read this article about William McMillan. 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. Within weeks, McMillian was transferred to a maximum-security state prison in Atmore, Alabama. There was a new county sheriff, and people were whispering about his incompetence. Karen confirms that Myers never met, Stevenson describes the situation preceding, The hearing begins. He had lost his logging business and sold car parts until he became too ill to work. 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. But when the word got out about their affair, he grew worried. He met Karen Kelly, who was 25 and unhappily married, at the Waffle House where he ate breakfast. His days were spent twenty-three hours a day in a dark cell. Since then, the EJI has made some landmark advances in leveling . I cant imagine how infuriating it must be to experience something like this. While McMillian did receive an undisclosed amount of compensation, it was less than he had hoped for. Walter McMillian died in 2013: he was 71-years-old. 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. Myers already pleaded guilty as an accomplice in Morrisons murder and received a 30-year prison sentence avoiding a possible death sentence for the Pittman murder. McMillian, freed from death row in 1993, died September 11, 2013, at age 71. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The smell of someone you know burning to death is the most painful and nauseating experience on this earth. 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. 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. 2. - celebrated for convicting Walter McMillian - refused to release Walter McMillian despite family members, church members, black pastors, and others pleading with him and offering their testimonies - brought Walter McMillian to death row (Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama) from the county jail on August 1st, 1987 A deputy then revealed to McMillian that the initial charge was only a way to impound his truck. Morrison, who was white, had been bludgeoned, strangled and shot three times. In the case Walter McMillian v. State proceedings it was recorded that Myers identified Larry Ikner, and Thomas Tate, as the law enforcement officers. All he could do was sit there and listen as three witnesses for the prosecution lied in their testimonies. Walter McMillian. Select this result to view Walter McMillian's phone number, address, and more. His sole criminal record was a suspended sentence for a bar fight. They separate after Walter's release, but she remains involved in his life and in his care during his long-term illness. They stopped him with guns pointing at his face, and they shoved him up against his truck. How Racism, Police Incompetence, And Lying Witnesses Put Walter McMillian On Death Row For Six Years. About $35 was missing. Suddenly, State Troopers, city cars, sheriffs, and deputies surrounded his car. When he asked for an explanation, they loudly and angrily said that he was being charged with sodomy for assaulting a man. 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. Genealogy for Walter Miles McMillian (1850 - 1922) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. [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. . As depicted in Just Mercy, Walter McMillain's case was among the first - and the most important - of attorney Bryan Stevenson's career.After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1985, nearly a year before Morrison's murder (an inaccuracy in the film's timeline), Stevenson moved first to Atlanta, Georgia and then to Montgomery, where he helped form the Alabama Capital Representation . Born on Oct. 27, 1941, McMillian grew up in one of several poor black settlements outside Monroeville. Jamie Foxx plays Walter McMillian in the film, Just Mercy. McMillian, was charged with first degree murder, the murder of a very well known white girl in the community. 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. 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 An uncle of the murder victim, in fact, came by and told them she was killed, witnesses said. Again, great work! To him and his family, the money he got from picking cotton was worth a lot more than an education. Several months later, police arrested 30-year-old Ralph Myers, a career criminal, on suspicion of murdering a woman in nearby Escambia County. Our death penalty system treats you better if youre rich and guilty than if youre poor and innocent. Walter was born on October 27, 1941 and passed away on Wednesday, September 11, 2013. . And he had an alibi: He was at a family fish fry the morning Ronda Morrison was murdered. A Life on Both Sides of the Ocean Mary McMillan in her early twenties Mary McMillan was born in Boston in 1880, just a few years after her parents emigrated from Scotland. Supporters celebrated Mr. McMillians release. His case drew public attention to wrongful convictions, and many more people were exonerated in the years after his release. At least 48 people have been released from prison after serving time on death row since 1930 with significant evidence of their innocence. It was too easy for the state to convict someone for that crime and then have him sentenced to death. They had already received previous backlash from the public because his son was known for marrying a white woman. Explore genealogy for Walter McMillian born 1941 Monroe County, Alabama, United States died 2013 including ancestors + more in the free family tree community. 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. It was founded in 2012 in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. "[6] He was held there, pre-trial, for 15 months. 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. A week later, prosecutors dismissed the charges. October 10, 1995. They had three children and lived in a dilapidated house in Repton, about 10 miles south of Monroeville. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. It was the last state in the U.S. to overturn laws banning interracial marriage but that wouldnt happen for another 14 years. 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. 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. Financial TimesWalter McMillian (left) and Bryan Stevenson after McMillians conviction was overturned in 1993. The website is updated daily, frequently with exonerations that occurred in the past. information about the Registry, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct. A student organization of St. Marys University of San Antonio, Texas, featuring scholarly research, writing, and media from students of all disciplines. McMillian lost an appeal in 1991 and his conviction and death sentence were affirmed. 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. Walter (Johnny D.) McMillian was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1988 and sentenced to death. Born to a poor black family outside of Monroeville, Alabama, Walter became a successful small businessman as an adult. 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. With his conviction overturned, Walter McMillian was released from death row in 1993. harrowing last words of 23 executed criminals. 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. In Alabama, Monroeville, 1986, Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), a member of Monroevile's Black community and owner of a tree felling company, was arrested for the murder of 18-year-old girl Ronda Morrison at the local cleaners. But as much as his family fought against the system, the system had a way of taking hold. Part of the evidence revealed a tape where a witness confessed to having been pressured to frame McMillan. This set off a chain of events that changed Mr. McMillians life forever. Born to a poor black family outside of Monroeville, Alabama, Walter became a successful small businessman as an adult. In 1992, Ed Bradley reported that the wrong man might have been sitting on Alabama's death row. Mr. McMillian was arrested, and in an extraordinary move, was immediately . The McMillian family: Walter McMillian had a family of believers. When McMillian reached adulthood, he noticed this trend and borrowed money to buy his own equipment; by the 1980s, he owned a modestly profitable pulpwood business. McMillian filed a civil lawsuit against state and local officials, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. I don't give a damn what your people say either. 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. 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? [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. This story was very sad to read, and unfortunately a clear reality in todays times with our criminal justice system in the United States. The jury then found McMillian guilty despite that there was no physical evidence that linked him to the crime. He had a large, tight-knit family and several children with his wife. Things would be fine, he thought, as long as everything was kept secret. 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. We invite you to learn more about the clients featured in the book below. Albert Walter McMillian. On February 23, 1993, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed McMillians conviction and ordered a new trial. Bryan Stevenson discusses the outrageous miscarriage of justice in the case of Walter McMillian. [7][14], McMillian's "appellate lawyers discovered that prosecutors had withheld evidence and that the state's star witnesses had lied. This article was very sad and eye opening for the treatment of black men in a still prejudice south. [5] In 1986 he had been married to Minnie McMillian for 25 years and they had nine children. In the 1988 trial, under a controversial Alabama doctrine called "judicial override", the judge imposed the death . In addition, one of his sons had married a white woman. As Mr. Stevenson and the staff of EJI investigated the case, they discovered a ton of evidence that proved Mr. McMillian was innocent. Thirty-six of the nearly two hundred convicts on death row are there because of override."[5]. [5][14], The two witnesses who had testified that they had seen McMillian's truck retracted their testimony, and admitted that they lied at trial, committing perjury. His truck was later examined by Bill Hooks who claimed to have seen McMillians truck at the cleaners. Chestnut and Bruce Boynton, later testified that the state withheld evidence that proved his innocence. 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], 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. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. Wonder how many of them were white, if any minorities were serving at all. 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 lost my life. 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