His truck was later examined by Bill Hooks who claimed to have seen McMillians truck at the cleaners. 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". -Graham S. The timeline below shows where the character Walter McMillian appears in, Stevenson explains that he will focus on the story of, general, Stevenson is amused. McMillian was looking at two options for his sentence: death by electrocution, or life in prison. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. He was subjected to graphic questions about the nature of his and Kellys relationship, and he left the courtroom feeling uneasy. Before Walter McMillian was released from death row. McMillian." Its really infuriating that the people involved received no backlash. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Journalist Pete Earley covered it in his book Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town (1995). 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. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Police could not solve the crime. 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. On April 1, 1993, Mr. McMillian spoke to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about the urgent need to end the death penalty. It was too easy for one person to come into court and frame a man for a murder he didnt commit. [9] McMillian was charged with a two-count indictment "for the offense of murder made capital because it was committed during a robbery in the first degree", and the jury recommended a life sentence. He has won all but one of the five cases he's argued at the Court. . It was founded in 2012 in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. Sexual or romantic relationships between blacks and whites were still very much taboo, especially out in the land of forests and plantations. Judge Key warns Stevenson not to take on the case of, death row inmates. After six months with no leads or suspects, their attention focused on Walter McMillian. Walter is related to Jane Marie Price and Jaline Renae McMillan as well as 3 additional people. He also filed civil lawsuits for his sentencing to death row. The trial began on August 15, 1988 and lasted only a day and a half. 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. In front of the camera, In his funeral speech, Stevenson explains that , Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. 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. With few ordinary comforts in his life, the attention of women was something Walter did not easily resist.. Judge Robert E. Lee Key overrode the jurys sentence of life imprisonment and sentenced Mr. McMillian to death by electrocution. 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. 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. Husband of Libbie Wood. 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. 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. Mr. McMillian was held on death row prior to being convicted and sentenced to death. Jamie Foxx plays Walter McMillian in the film, Just Mercy. McMillian lost an appeal in 1991 and his conviction and death sentence were affirmed. Stevenson's uncle died in prison . 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 . LitCharts Teacher Editions. What do we tell these children about how to stay out of harms way when you can be at your own house, minding your own business, surrounded by your entire family, and they still put some murder on you that you aint do and send you to 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. 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 . McMillian claims innocence, but in 1988 he is convicted by a jury of young Morrison's murder. From 1990 to 1993, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals turned down four appeals. We invite you to learn more about the clients featured in the book below. memorial page for Albert Walter McMillian (13 Oct 1862-2 Oct 1948), Find a Grave Memorial ID 7915499, citing Oakland Cemetery, Saint Paul . Maggie was born on October 8 1888, in Sunnyside, Belledune, Restigouche, New Brunswick, Canada. All he could do was sit there and listen as three witnesses for the prosecution lied in their testimonies. During their first year together, they almost starved, with Walter working as a field hand for $14 per week. He had lost his logging business and sold car parts until he became too ill to work. McMillian, freed from death row in 1993, died September 11, 2013, at age 71. The false testimonies claimed that they had seen McMillian near the cleaners the morning of the murder. The community heard about the tragedy as many had gathered for a fish-fry at McMillans home to raise money for their local church. While McMillian did receive an undisclosed amount of compensation, it was less than he had hoped for. I have suffered pain, agony, loss, and fear in degrees that I had never imagined possible, he testified in 1993. [4] According to his attorney Bryan Stevenson, McMillian purchased logging and paper mill equipment and became a "moderately successful businessman". Walter McMillian was nearly put to death for a crime he did not commit One of young lawyer Stevenson's first and most incendiary cases after founding the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative was. He met Karen Kelly, who was 25 and unhappily married, at the Waffle House where he ate breakfast. "[6], Eighteen-year-old Ronda Morrison, a white dry-cleaning clerk, was murdered at Jackson Cleaners on November 1, 1986, in Monroeville, Alabama. Myers heard popping sounds, and he found McMillian standing over the victim with a gun in his hand. Morrison, who was white, had been bludgeoned, strangled and shot three times. Early History of the McMillan family. Walter McMillians post-conviction ordeal is featured in the film. He "did not have a history of violence. He claimed that McMillian's exoneration "proved the system worked. "[9] D.A. [3][12] McMillian was arrested in June 1987. Stevenson recounts the story Myers gave during. Walter Lester McMillian, 72, of Fancy Gap, died May 26, 2002, in Beverly Health Care-Blue Ridge. [9], On February 23, 1993, in Walter McMillian v. State in the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, all judges concurred that "the state suppressed exculpatory and impeachment evidence that had been requested by the defense, thus denying the appellant due process of law, requiring the reversal of his conviction and death sentence, and the remand of the case for a new trial. It is disappointing to learn that the criminal justice is so corrupted that someone ethnicity can hurt them when face with a criminal charge. "[6][Notes 1][5] McMillian was represented by attorney J. L. Chestnut. 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. 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