WebMyers had pled guilty as a conspirator in the murder and received a 30-year prison term. Shortly after taking the stage at Toronto, Stevenson, Jordan and Foxx sit down with Variety to talk about their hopes for the film. Walter was an unlikely suspect in Rondas murder. 416 pp. WebBorn to a poor black family outside of Monroeville, Alabama, Walter became a successful small businessman as an adult. Mr. McMillian was held on death row prior to being convicted and sentenced to death. Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. So Stevenson, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office in Alabama, began to seek the spotlight. Normally, the Equal Justice Initiative gets 100 emails a week looking for legal help. He also filed civil lawsuits for his sentencing to death row. You might not understand the first couple of plays, but you look down the field, and eight moves later the game is over.. Stevenson is prepared to surrender more of his anonymity if it means that more people will engage with the cause of criminal justice reform. 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 August 1988, a black man named Walter McMillian, known as Johnny D, was sentenced to death for the murder of a white teenage girl in Monroeville, Alabama. Contact profile manager; View family tree; In a 2014 interview withNPR, Stevenson, Walters lawyer, said, I saw that create this early-onset dementia [in McMillian] that many of the doctors believed was trauma-induced, was a function of his experience of being nearly killed and he witnessed eight executions when he was on death row Thus, while the American penal system is not directly responsible for Walters demise, the traumatic experience definitely played a role in his death. The McMillian family: Walter McMillian had a family of believers. Struggling with distance learning? I called Ryan and said I thought this project would be perfect for Michael B., and 30 seconds later hes patched him in and were on a three-way call, recalls Cretton. Its the first major studio film to adopt the idea of an inclusion rider, a contractual provision that mandates women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community and other underrepresented groups be considered for key on-screen and behind-the-scenes jobs. Another of McMillians daughters, Renita Odom, says the courage he had gave the family another chance to have their father back. The McMillian family: Walter McMillian had a family of believers. Part of the evidence revealed a tape where a witness confessed to having been pressured to frame McMillan. Walter McMillian passed away on September 11, 2013.7. Walter Miles McMillian's Geni Profile. When you are poor and under sentence of death you worry about a lot of things. According to NYU (where he's an Aronson Family Professor of Criminal Justice), he started representing death row inmates from the Deep South in 1985, and founded the nonprofit law organization Equal Justice Initiative in 1989. The 45-year-old self-employed logger had worked for several people in the community and had no criminal history. In turn, Cretton reached out to Jordan through Ryan Coogler, the Black Panther and Fruitvale Station filmmaker who was a friend from their days working the indie festival circuit. WebEarly Origins of the McMillan family.

In the last two years of his life, McMillian could neither enjoy the outdoors nor get around without help. Walters wife Minnie warmly greets Stevenson and she offers him something to eat. McMillian had a business of his own and was an upstanding member of his community. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. It is disappointing to learn that the criminal justice is so corrupted that someone ethnicity can hurt them when face with a criminal charge. He went a step further to demonstrate the ways this contributes to larger divisions in society: He not only highlighted statistics, such as the fact that black defendants are 11 times more likely to get the death penalty than white ones; he also linked institutional racism to the legacy of slavery and the failure of reconstruction. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. For many death row inmates, it takes years to get the kind of legal representation and investigation necessary to prove your innocence., The trauma McMillian faced on death row ultimately led to the early onset of dementia. Theres a scene early in Just Mercy in which McMillian is pulled over by a racist sheriff who is eager to find a patsy for the murder. Until his dying wish he did not receive justice for his wrongful conviction. Ive had to learn how to live all over againyou try to live and keep going.

Mistakes that I could easily have made, they made sure I didnt or scared me away from it.. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1713 titles we cover. WebGenealogy for Walter Miles McMillian (1850 - 1922) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. While McMillian did receive an undisclosed amount of compensation, it was less than he had hoped for. The 45-year-old self-employed logger had worked for several people in the community and had no criminal history. God has helped me out so much. He had about half a dozen of his friends and family members testifying that they were with him at the time of the crime. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." It also empowered the various department chiefs to find people from underrepresented groups to staff other pivotal roles. WebWalter had a history of cheating on his wife, Minnie, with whom he had five children. Judge Robert E. Lee Key overrode the verdict, using powers bestowed on him by the state of Alabama, and sentenced Walter to death by electrocution. The community heard about the tragedy as many had gathered for a fish-fry at McMillans home to raise money for their local church. Again, great work! Jordan got the idea to include the mandate in his contracts after watching Frances McDormand name-check the initiative while accepting her Oscar in 2018 for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri., Were always coming from a place of not having power, says Jordan. Our industry is very reactive, says Jordan. Just Mercy doesnt just grapple with knotty moral and legal issues. The McMillian family: Walter McMillian had a family of believers. Suddenly, State Troopers, city cars, sheriffs, and deputies surrounded his car. The hearing lasted for one and a half days where dozens of black people testified that Walter was with his family at least 11 miles away from where the murder took place. Thats the thing. This was an important story, a moving story and one that we felt could draw a mainstream audience, says Toby Emmerich, chairman of Warner Bros. Picture Group, the studio behind the roughly $25 million production. Yet it was Stevenson who spoke to the seriousness of what was about to unspool on screen, a searing look at the lives of dispossessed individuals whose reality could not be further removed from that of the well-heeled festival-goers. 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. Walter McMillian died in 2013: he was 71-years-old. It holds an important place in an ongoing fight to make the entertainment industry a more open and diverse business. He came to attention because he had an affair with a married white woman. People were more concerned with convicting an innocent man of a murder he did not commit rather than finding the victims murderer. WebWalter " 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. I became persuaded that we probably couldnt win it, says Stevenson. 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. Notably, he worked as a pulpwood worker for a while until he suffered from a broken neck in 1995. Currently, one in three black boys and one in six Latino boys are projected to go to jail or prison in their lifetimes. After his book was published and the Ted Talk got attention, the number jumped to 500 weekly requests, and he fully expects it to double after the film debuts. McMillian and his wife, Minnie, met when when they were teenagers and married after she became pregnant in 1962. His trial lasted less than two days. 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. Father of Private; Private; Larry McMillian; Private and Private 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. There was a tragic murder of eighteen-year-old Ronda Morrison. When he asked for an explanation, they loudly and angrily said that he was being charged with sodomy for assaulting a man. Son of Laban Parks McMillian and Ada Kirk Just Mercy closes with a sobering statistic. Thats not true for lynching. Its really infuriating that the people involved received no backlash. Equal Justice Initiative Walter McMillian with his family after his release from prison. 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. Walters wife, The State decides to join rather than oppose the motion. Walter was an unlikely suspect in Rondas murder. Walter was an unlikely suspect in Rondas murder. As a black man living in southern Alabama, McMillian didnt stand a chance. WebWalter had a history of cheating on his wife, Minnie, with whom he had five children. You have to have a way of managing conflict with people who distrust you and hate you and presume youre dangerous and guilty, and still be open with your family and the people you care about.. According to NYU (where he's an Aronson Family Professor of Criminal Justice), he started representing death row inmates from the Deep South in 1985, and founded the nonprofit law organization Equal Justice Initiative in 1989. In the case of Just Mercy, the production team was able to hire women or people of color to head such major departments as casting, costume design, production design, hair, makeup and stunts. They knew their statements against a white mans perjured testimony didnt stand a chance.4, McMillians trial lasted two days. Capitalizing on the momentum, Stevenson went on to write Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, a 2014 memoir that expanded on the Ted Talk by drilling into one of the lawyers formative early cases, his 1988 defense of Walter McMillian, a 47-year-old African American pulpwood worker who was falsely convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He went back to death row, spending six more years there. LitCharts Teacher Editions. The surname McMillan was first found in at Tayside, where in 1263 Cilleonan MacMolan appears on documents. Each testimony had inconsistencies in their stories, but that did not matter. The crime took place at the Jackson Cleaners in Monroeville. For every nine people executed in this country, one innocent person has been exonerated. $23.95. Despite having various witnesses on his side, it seemed useless. It was, Stevenson admits, a surreal experience, one made even more unusual because the film in question, Just Mercy, recounts his fight to free Walter McMillian, a wrongfully convicted man whose story serves as a fiercely urgent reminder of the inequities in our criminal justice system. Nobody will come and see an all-black cast. PDF downloads of all 1713 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. It wouldnt have been possible in a less inclusive environment.. In addition, one of McMillian's sons had married a white woman. Despite the darkness of the subject matter, Stevenson sounded a hopeful note. October 10, 1995. WebWalter had a history of cheating on his wife, Minnie, with whom he had five children. His trial lasted less than two days. For Jordan, Just Mercy represented a chance to work alongside Foxx, a longtime friend and mentor. 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. Just Mercy, starring Jamie Foxx as Walter (and also sometimes called Johnnie D by his friends and family), is based off the memoir written by Stevenson, played by Michael B. Jordan. They arrived in Strathtay from the lands in Loch Arkaig after King Malcolm IV transplanted many Clans, including the MacMillans, from that region about 1160 AD. Unknown Mcmillian, Unknown Mcmillian, Unknown Mcmillian, Unknown Mcmillian, Unknown Mcmillian, Laborn Parks Mcmillian, Ada M. Mcmillian (born Kirk). Walter McMillian died in 2013: he was 71-years-old. Walter McMillian lived an ordinary life alongside his wife Minnie McMillian and their three children. Aside from having a misdemeanor charge from a barroom fight, he had a clean record and no other charges to his name. Those six years on death row traumatized McMillian in many unthinkable ways. This article was very sad and eye opening for the treatment of black men in a still prejudice south. Despite being new to the world of moviemaking, Stevenson arguably outshone the A-list stars in attendance at last months gala screening. He suffered mentally and physically to the point where he developed early on-set dementia. He said, I am deeply troubled by the way the criminal system treated me and the difficulty I had in proving my innocence. Research the McMillian family Start your family tree now. I can talk to him a little bit about how to move through a courtroom, and he can definitely show me how to move on a red carpet. Jordan isnt having it. Its just another Tuesday. He found inspiration in 2015 best picture Oscar winner Spotlight, particularly the way that the true-life story about a crusading team of newspaper reporters who expose the systemic cover-up of child abuse by the Catholic Church in Boston dialed down the dramatics. WebGenealogy for Walter Miles McMillian (1850 - 1922) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. This article illuminates how unfair and biased the justice system is to the minorities but also people of color. Netter enlisted Cretton, a director best known for making Short Term 12, a drama about a group home for troubled teens. With this movie, the scenarios and the emotions are so high that if we tried to push it any further with a big swelling string section or even a really cool slo-mo shot, it started to feel fake.. Just Mercy recounts the true story of a mans trials and tribulations with the legal system where odds are stacked against the minorities. Ive just turned a lot over to him.. I appreciate that the author provided just enough detail so the reader could form an emotional connection to this story. But until last September, on a rain-streaked afternoon at the Toronto Intl. My parents would hear stories about Hollywood, and there were a lot of reservations on their part about letting me go out there. Thats not true for segregation. WebMcMillian, a father of nine who held two jobs, was known in the community for having an ongoing affair with a white woman named Karen Kelly (pictured below during a 60 Minutes interview ). 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. When Ronda Morrisons murder sent shockwaves through the small Monroeville community in Alabama, the cops rushed to solve the case. His speech drew more than 5.8 million views. 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? In August 1988, a black man named Walter McMillian, known as Johnny D, was sentenced to death for the murder of a white teenage girl in Monroeville, Alabama. WebMcMillian, a father of nine who held two jobs, was known in the community for having an ongoing affair with a white woman named Karen Kelly (pictured below during a 60 Minutes interview ). For me, the threshold question is not whether people deserve to die for the crimes theyve committed, says Stevenson. Stevenson presented the newfound evidence at hearings and appeals before the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Contact profile manager; View family tree; McMillian presented six alibi witnesses who testified that they had been with him at a family fish fry the entire day. 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. Instant downloads of all 1713 LitChart PDFs McMillian and his wife, Minnie, met when when they were teenagers and married after she became pregnant in 1962. 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. One of the biggest worries is whether youll get the kind of legal assistance you need to save you from execution. IE 11 is not supported. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. 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. Stevenson came across McMillians case and met with him and began working on appealing his case. WebMcMillian, a father of nine who held two jobs, was known in the community for having an ongoing affair with a white woman named Karen Kelly (pictured below during a 60 Minutes interview ). Walter Miles McMillian's Geni Profile. The reveal of the witness being pressured to testify proves that the laws that help prevent these things dont always work. Aside from having a misdemeanor charge from a barroom fight, he had a clean record and no other charges to his name. They arrived in Strathtay from the lands in Loch Arkaig after King Malcolm IV transplanted many Clans, including the MacMillans, from that region about 1160 AD.

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His trial lasted less than two days. On March 3, 1993, the County District Attorney finally dismissed the charges. Its in me though, and sometimes it takes all I have in me to hold back. This was an important story, a moving story and one that we felt could draw a mainstream audience". But what met me on the other side in Los Angeles was this community of people like Jamie that genuinely cared about me. McMillian was convicted by a Managed by: Cameron McMillian: Last Updated: He first notices the homes disrepair and the familiar signs of poverty.