We encourage you to research and examine these . Just Mercy is a 2019 American biographical legal drama film co-written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and starring Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson, Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, and Brie Larson.It explores the work of young defense attorney Bryan Stevenson who represents poor people on death row in the South. He was arrested by Monroe County Sheriff Tom Tate and eventually charged with capital murder. "[6] In a prison interview in 1993, McMillian said, "The only reason I'm here is because I had been messing around with a white lady and my son married a white lady. It was clear that Myers and McMillian didnt know each other; Myers word was the sole evidence connecting McMillian to the crime. 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. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. Myers had pled guilty as a conspirator in the murder and received a 30-year prison term. Walter McMillian was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. McMillian's case served as a catalyst for Alabama's compensation statute, which was passed in 2001. The jury recommended a life sentence, but on September 19, 1988, the judge overrode the jurys recommendation and imposed the death penalty. He knew it, his family knew it, and his friends knew it. Skip Ancestry main menu Main Menu. Before you check out Jamie Foxx in the new film Just Mercy, learn the true story of Walter McMillian, an Alabama man wrongfully convicted for a brutal murder who spent six years on death row. They had three children and lived in a dilapidated house in Repton, about 10 miles south of Monroeville. In a taped confession, Myers said he drove McMillian to the dry cleaners on the morning of Nov. 1, 1986, but McMillian entered the building alone. When asked whether his change of fortune restored his faith in the justice system, McMillian simply replied, No. [6] McMillian held two jobs and "no criminal record other than a misdemeanor charge stemming [from] a barroom fight". He wasnt just enraged that his wife was cheating on him she was cheating on him with a black man. 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. [2] Stevenson featured this early case of his career in a TED talk and in his memoir Just Mercy (2014). 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. 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. We are all broken by something. This story is incredibly heartbreaking and sadly not very uncommon. [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. Sexual or romantic relationships between blacks and whites were still very much taboo, especially out in the land of forests and plantations. After an investigation revealed that McMillians truck was converted to a low-rider six months after the crime took place, the eye-witnesses recanted their testimony and admitted to lying. As a black man living in southern Alabama, McMillian didnt stand a chance. This article illuminates how unfair and biased the justice system is to the minorities but also people of color. Again, great work! Karen confirms that Myers never met, Stevenson describes the situation preceding, The hearing begins. 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. Judge Robert E. Lee Key overrode the jurys sentence of life imprisonment and sentenced Mr. McMillian to death by electrocution. 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. The case had generated an unusual amount of media coverage. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. This article was very sad and eye opening for the treatment of black men in a still prejudice south. "[6] He was held there, pre-trial, for 15 months. 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. 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. Walter McMillian, who was born on October 27, 1941, lived in a black settlement near Monroeville where he "grew up picking cotton. 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. For the first time in six years, Walter McMillian was a free man. McMillian was accused of murdering an 18-year-old girl and was put on death row. She was shot three times in the back, and it looked like money had been taken from the cash register. It took a significant toll on his health and led to him developing early-onset dementia. When he visited McMillian in prison,[10][16][Notes 4][17] McMillian maintained his innocence. 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". 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. .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. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. But the overwhelming evidence of innocence ultimately forced the State to agree to drop the charges. As a result, there have been no answers in Ronda Morrison's murder. [19] Subsequently, McMillian settled out of court with other officials for an undisclosed amount. 53 records for Walter Mcmillian. Grandmother . They lived in a sharecropper's shack. Contact profile manager; View family tree; We encourage you to research and examine these . 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. Walters sense of humor hadnt failed him despite his six years on death row. 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. In the case Walter McMillian v. State proceedings it was recorded that Myers identified Larry Ikner, and Thomas Tate, as the law enforcement officers. 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. The suspect, who was from a prominent family then fled town. Bryan Stevenson discusses the outrageous miscarriage of justice in the case of Walter McMillian. 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 In the 1988 trial, under a controversial Alabama doctrine called "judicial override", the judge imposed the death . Stevenson was motivated to take McMillian's case because of the use of the judge override. Equal Justice Initiative Walter McMillian with his family after his release from prison. The racial bias against McMillian is shown in his interactions with the law . 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 . After six months, the police had a possible person of interest. Morrison, who was white, had been bludgeoned, strangled and shot three times. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. His case lacked evidence but he was still. McMillian later developed dementia and died in 2013, but his name lives on at the center of the criminal justice reform movement. The trial lasted only a day and a half. 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. He also filed civil lawsuits for his sentencing to death row. The crime sent shock waves of fear and anger through the small community. He was a family friend, and the rumor was that hed been lynched for dating a white woman. The fact that this man was innocent, and everyone knew, he was still guilty. Walter Lester McMillian, 72, of Fancy Gap, died May 26, 2002, in Beverly Health Care-Blue Ridge. 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. / Bryan Stevenson speaks with reporters after oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012. McMillians original attorneys in the trial, J.L. When he asked for an explanation, they loudly and angrily said that he was being charged with sodomy for assaulting a man. 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. Instant downloads of all 1682 LitChart PDFs "Just Mercy," a movie about the case, opens in theaters this . Thirty-six of the nearly two hundred convicts on death row are there because of override."[5]. Either way, its a shame that not only our officers, but our prosecutors, which I believe work closely with the police department (at least more than defense attorneys), have also been shown to be racially biased. I feel sick about the six years that [McMillian] has spent in prison and the part I played in keeping him there. Throughout the case, Stevenson battles political and legal maneuverings, as well as overt and institutional racism, all in the name of fighting for . Walter McMillian died in 2013: he was 71-years-old. Darnell explains that after, at the Monroe County Courthouse, Stevensons hopes fade as Chapman expresses his unquestioning belief in, is tell the truth. Now that the retrial has been denied, Stevensons next step in, at the Tutwiler Womens Prison for the Pittman murder. [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. . Her . When Minnie became pregnant in 1962, they were married. Aside from having a misdemeanor charge from a barroom fight, he had a clean record and no other charges to his name. Despite having various witnesses on his side, it seemed useless. Mr. McMillian was held on death row prior to being convicted and sentenced to death. Like Walter, she is from the poor black community just outside of Monroeville. Years later when the case settled, the compensation was much less than had been hoped. Bryan Stevenson stands in 1993 with Walter McMillan, a man wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death row for six years for the murder of an 18-year-old dry cleaning store clerk in Monroeville, Ala. Stevenson successfully argued that Stevenson was with family 11 miles away at the time of the crime, that witnesses had lied on the stand, and that the prosecution had illegally suppressed . They had met as teenagers. This set off a chain of events that changed Mr. McMillians life forever. 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 heard popping sounds, and he found McMillian standing over the victim with a gun in his hand. But the jury 11 white members and one black member took the prosecutions word. He had a large, tight-knit family and several children with his wife. Part of the evidence revealed a tape where a witness confessed to having been pressured to frame McMillan. memorial page for Albert Walter McMillian (13 Oct 1862-2 Oct 1948), Find a Grave Memorial ID 7915499, citing Oakland Cemetery, Saint Paul . 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. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. He filed civil lawsuits against state and local officials for his wrongful conviction. Bryan, who was the attorney on Walter's case, was young and just starting his career. Walter McMillian was among the first exonerees from death row in the modern era. The . In front of the camera, In his funeral speech, Stevenson explains that , Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. 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. That the retrial has been denied, Stevensons next step in, at the center of the override... 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