[6] McMillian's attorney then filed a motion to dismiss all charges. They had already received previous backlash from the public because his son was known for marrying a white woman. A very public divorce between this woman and her husband pulled Mr. McMillian into the limelight and he soon went from someone having an interracial affair to someone thought to be capable of murder. It was a pleasure to read this article about William McMillan. Walter McMillian was married to Minnie McMillian for 25 years. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. 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. But the overwhelming evidence of innocence ultimately forced the State to agree to drop the charges. In 1988, Bryan Stevenson met Walter McMillian and began working to appeal his conviction and death sentence. Things would be fine, he thought, as long as everything was kept secret. One of the biggest worries is whether youll get the kind of legal assistance you need to save you from execution, he testified. The story of Walter McMillian in Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is the one that I found the most intriguing. The real-life Walter McMillian (left) and lawyer Bryan Stevenson. McMillian, was charged with first degree murder, the murder of a very well known white girl in the community. This article was very sad and eye opening for the treatment of black men in a still prejudice south. Years later when the case settled, the compensation was much less than had been hoped. One of his friends said they were working on that same truck that morning; the transmission was out of it. At least 48 people have been released from prison after serving time on death row since 1930 with significant evidence of their innocence. Just Mercy tells the story of EJI's clients, from Walter McMillian and Anthony Ray Hinton who were exonerated from Alabama's death row to Joe Sullivan and Ian Manuel who won release after being sentenced to die in prison for nonhomicide crimes in Florida when they were just 13 years old. [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. 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. Stevenson opens chapter five with over a page of direct quotations from McMillian's sister and other family members. The officials involved in prosecuting McMillian received no punishment or removal from their positions. After, Stevenson agrees to work with the CBS program 60 Minutes to produce a story about, an innocent man in prison until the real murderer is found. Birthdate: estimated between 1837 and 1897. Still, the police were desperate to wrap up the Morrison case, and they felt that this was their opportunity. The jury then found McMillian guilty despite that there was no physical evidence that linked him to the crime. Several months later, police arrested 30-year-old Ralph Myers, a career criminal, on suspicion of murdering a woman in nearby Escambia County. 2d 1253 (Ala.Cr. Family History Search. Last Updated December 25, 2019, 8:30 AM. In the case Walter McMillian v. State proceedings it was recorded that Myers identified Larry Ikner, and Thomas Tate, as the law enforcement officers. He became uncharacteristically emotional. His trial lasted only a day and a half. Myers was picked up for a different murder, that of a poor white woman named Vickie Pittman. Judge Key warns Stevenson not to take on the case of, death row inmates. On March 2, 1993, prosecutors dismissed charges against McMillian and he was released. After six months, the police had a possible person of interest. This was adapted as an eponymous feature film, released in 2019. "[5] It emerged that Sheriff Tate and investigators with the Monroe County D.A. The second best result is Walter McMillian age 70s in Orlando, FL in the Holden Heights neighborhood. Morrison, who was white, had been bludgeoned, strangled and shot three times. I'm going to put twelve people on a jury who are going to find your goddamn black ass guilty. 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 When asked whether his change of fortune restored his faith in the justice system, McMillian simply replied, No. 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. - 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 He "did not have a history of violence. 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. The nearly all-white jury convicted Mr. McMillian of capital murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole. (including. login . Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. 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. 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. [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. The visits from his family were the only thing getting him by in his time there. Their central case is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), an independent pulpwood worker and family man known to most as Johnny D. He . His trial start on Aug. 15, 1988 and lasted only a day and a half. The petition also alleged that the state of Alabama "had violated his constitutional rights by withholding exculpatory and impeachment information". The people of Monroeville, Alabama was shaken up with fear and anger by Morrison's murder. 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. No. Today, more than 160 people who were on death row have been proved innocent and released. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Mr. McMillians conviction was overturned and he was released from death row. McMillian presented six alibi witnesses who testified that they had been with him at a family fish fry the entire day. 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. They knew their statements against a white mans perjured testimony didnt stand a chance.4, McMillians trial lasted two days. Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures. This story is just one of the many injustices colored people must experience. Little did he know that the murder of Ronda Morrison would impact his life in a major way later on.2, On June 7, 1987 at around 11:00 a.m, McMillian was peacefully driving down Route 84. McMillian was completely clueless as to why this was happening to him. The trial began on August 15, 1988. 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. Less than two years later, he was convicted of murder a murder he didnt commit. [19] Subsequently, McMillian settled out of court with other officials for an undisclosed amount. McMillian and his wife, Minnie, met when when they were teenagers and married after she became pregnant in 1962. People were more concerned with convicting an innocent man of a murder he did not commit rather than finding the victims murderer. His days were spent twenty-three hours a day in a dark cell. Walter McMillian was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. On the night Walter McMillian, a black woodcutter in rural Alabama, was . On the other hand, maybe the jury has more fault, since surely the defense attorney would had pointed out the inconsistencies of the witnesses testimonies, meaning that it cant be trusted, but the majority of them ultimately decided to turn a blind eye too. Starting with, ordinary life lets the reader know that this could happen to anyone of color. memorial page for Albert Walter McMillian (13 Oct 1862-2 Oct 1948), Find a Grave Memorial ID 7915499, citing Oakland Cemetery, Saint Paul . "[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. This web page shows only a small excerpt of our McMillan research. The reveal of the witness being pressured to testify proves that the laws that help prevent these things dont always work. The smell of someone you know burning to death is the most painful and nauseating experience on this earth. Death: Immediate Family: Son of Laban Parks McMillian and Ada Kirk. 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. When she was five years old, her mother died of consumption, weakened from the grueling delivery of Mary's younger sister and heartbroken by the baby's untimely death. 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. After he had decided to take the appeal, he got a phone call from Judge Key discouraging Stevenson from taking the case. 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. The suspect, who was from a prominent family then fled town. The website is updated daily, frequently with exonerations that occurred in the past. 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. Walter McMillian is in the back row. / Bryan Stevenson speaks with reporters after oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012. 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. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Early History of the McMillan family. I lost my reputation. 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. 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. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. The man was Russell Charley. 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. 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. Walter McMillian, who was born on October 27, 1941, lived in a black settlement near Monroeville where he "grew up picking cotton. He first encountered Walter while he was on death row (20). Husband of Libbie Wood. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. TRIAL: Defense asked for the trial to be moved from Monroe County to Baldwin County in Alabama due to the publicity. Each testimony had inconsistencies in their stories, but that did not matter. He also filed civil lawsuits for his sentencing to death row. Teachers and parents! For months, the police could not solve this case. Born to a poor black family outside of Monroeville, Alabama, Walter became a successful small businessman as an adult. 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. 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. About $35 was missing. 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. McMillian." Bryan Stevenson and EJI received death threats. There was a new county sheriff, and people were whispering about his incompetence. It was the last state in the U.S. to overturn laws banning interracial marriage but that wouldnt happen for another 14 years. [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. Bryan Stevenson, McMillian's defense attorney, raised awareness on the CBS News program 60 Minutes. This story is incredibly heartbreaking and sadly not very uncommon. he sees the report about EJI for the first time. All NRE reports represent a moment in time. Walter McMillian. Walter had 3 siblings: Isabelle Page (born Mcmillan) and 2 other siblings. American wrongly convicted of murder (19412013), According to the 1993 appeal, Judge R.E.L. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. Aside from having a misdemeanor charge from a barroom fight, he had a clean record and no other charges to his name. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Walter McMillian (Photo/Equal Justice Initiative). Walter McMillian (left) meets with his attorney, Bryan Stevenson. When Walter McMillian was a 12-year-old black boy in Monroe County, Alabama where Harper Lee set To Kill a Mockingbird a bullet-riddled black man was found hanging from a tree in nearby Vredenburgh. In 1993, after McMillian had served six years on Alabama's death row, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the lower court decision and ruled that he had been wrongfully convicted. 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. 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. In 1992, Ed Bradley reported that the wrong man might have been sitting on Alabama's death row. The appellant, Walter McMillian, was jointly indicted with Ralph Bernard Myers in a two-count indictment on December 11, 1987, in Monroe County, for the offense of murder made capital because it was committed during a robbery in the first degree, a violation of 13A-5-40(a)(2), Code of Alabama 1975. No fingerprints, no fibers not a single piece of physical evidence connecting McMillian to the crime scene. 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 . The jury recommended a life sentence, but on September 19, 1988, the judge overrode the jurys recommendation and imposed the death penalty. We have a choice. Enter a grandparent's name. When Minnie became pregnant in 1962, they were married. Until his dying wish he did not receive justice for his wrongful conviction. Grandmother . Bryan Stevenson took on Mr. McMillians case in postconviction. The Registry provides detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989cases in which a person was wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new evidence of innocence. Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. McMillian had explained to Sheriff Tate shortly after his arrest that he was at the fish fry on the morning of November 1. They had three children and lived in a dilapidated house in Repton, about 10 miles south of Monroeville. Tell
On February 23, 1993, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed McMillians conviction and ordered a new trial. McMillian is portrayed by Jamie Foxx and Stevenson is played by Michael B. Jordan, the "Black Panther" star who has used his considerable leverage to bring the story to the screen. The person of interest was a black man named Walter McMillian. McMillian's case served as a catalyst for Alabama's compensation statute, which was passed in 2001. 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. I am also worried about others. In 1987 Walter McMillian (played by Foxx) was convicted of killing a white woman who was shot multiple times in the back at a dry cleaners. Resistance to acknowledging Mr. McMillians innocence was intense. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. McMillian filed a civil lawsuit against state and local officials, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. To him and his family, the money he got from picking cotton was worth a lot more than an education. . 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]. McMillian lost an appeal in 1991 and his conviction and death sentence were affirmed. With his conviction overturned, Walter McMillian was released from death row in 1993. harrowing last words of 23 executed criminals. $23.95. An uncle of the murder victim, in fact, came by and told them she was killed, witnesses said. He was a family friend, and the rumor was that hed been lynched for dating a white woman. Find Walter Mcmillian's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading online directory for contact information. It was the laughter of liberation. The McMillian family: Walter McMillian had a family of believers. 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. His sole criminal record was a suspended sentence for a bar fight. Second best result is Walter McMillian was completely clueless as to why this was adapted as eponymous. As a catalyst for Alabama 's compensation statute, which was passed in.... The laws that help prevent these things dont always work he was released from row. Just one of the many injustices colored people must experience death: Immediate family: Walter age... Minnie became pregnant in 1962, they were teenagers and married after she became pregnant in 1962, they working... 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