Last Updated Mar 10, 2021 at 6:44 am MST. And just because we don’t see things eye to eye doesn’t mean that I’m not a moral person. (In the screenplay, the location is identified as an officie building in Montgomery, so the landlord is not a stand-in for University of Alabama officials: The school is in Tuscaloosa.) He had the fire-related phobias you’d expect, and really was moved to death row when he stopped cooperating with the police. Earley also sniffs at Stevenson sanding off his client’s rougher edges at a prayer breakfast at Montgomery’s AME church shortly after McMillian was freed: …[Stevenson] spoke passionately, without notes, about how politics, racial bias, and money all corrupt the justice system. In 1988, Walter McMillian, a Black man, was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death for murdering an 18-year-old white woman in Monroeville, Alabama. McMillian’s prosecution and exoneration have been the subject of two books: Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town, a 1995 true crime book about the murder by journalist Pete Earley, and Stevenson’s memoir, also called Just Mercy, which is structured around the McMillian case but also covers the early years of the Equal Justice Initiative. by: Erica Pettway, Ariel Cochran, CNN . But neither version of Just Mercy captures the level of animosity Chapman felt for Stevenson that Circumstantial Evidence describes, nor his description of their first meeting, from the same book: Stevenson didn’t know me or anything about me, and yet he comes in here and he has this attitude of “I’m a Harvard-educated lawyer and I’m going to come down here and tell these honkies how to do their job. Feature length documentary about Bill Kuenzel, a man on Alabama's death row who's been proclaiming his innocence for decades and faces execution in 2016. Death row inmates:Alabama 'reviewing its options' after Supreme Court upholds death row inmate's claim. In real life, Richardson had psychological problems from his combat experiences—he was the only survivor of an ambush that killed his entire platoon—and ended up in a Veterans Affairs hospital in New York after the war. In the movie, the hearing in which Stevenson submits the overwhelming evidence that McMillian was innocent is referred to as “Judge Foster,” played by Lindsay Ayliffe, looking as much like Jeff Sessions as possible. Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, Wetumpka, Alabama, where women on death row are housed. He began dating a nurse at the hospital. It was ironic because while in prison he … 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. Tate was also responsible for the scene in which McMillian’s son Johnny is tackled by deputies in the courtroom. Death Row USA, Alabama -2019- Dominique Ray Executed - YouTube The film examines the legacy of lynchings of African Americans in the U.S. to those who have wrongly sat on death row. As Just Mercy depicts, Bryan Stevenson worked tirelessly to make Walter McMillian the first person in Alabama history to be freed from death row, from a retrial … Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson took on Alabama death row inmate Walter McMillian’s case in post-conviction. Feature length documentary about Bill Kuenzel, a man on Alabama's death row who's been proclaiming his innocence for decades and faces execution in 2016. He arrested and indicted one of Stevenson’s witnesses for perjury after the witness came forward with exculpatory evidence, then dropped the charges when Stevenson pointed out they were obviously an intimidation tactic. The differences between Stevenson in the film and Stevenson in his memoir are mostly matters of dramatic compression: anecdotes Stevenson tells about other cases he handled are moved to the McMillian case, which saves the movie the time and trouble of explaining five or six different unjust criminal trials. The murder remains unsolved to this day, and the people who ruined McMillian’s life prospered in the aftermath. Richardson had PTSD from his time in Vietnam and struggled with psychological difficulties. We invite you to learn more about the clients featured in the book below. We consulted both of those books, contemporary news reports, and court documents to sort out what’s true and what’s artistic license in the new movie. The court overturned the conviction, and on March 2, 1993, Johnny D. left the courtroom as a free man. 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. He ended up at a Veterans Affairs hospital in New York after he returned from the war. Now his story is coming to the big screen. In 1993, Alabama's Court of Criminal Appeals heard his case again. With Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Charlie Pye Jr.. But every source agrees about one thing: McMillian had nothing to do with the murder of Ronda Morison. For example, the movie features a white prison guard (Hayes Mercure) who initially forces Stevenson to strip search before meeting with a client. Tom Chapman, the prosecutor who did the most to fight McMillian’s release, seems to have behaved even more badly in real life than he does in Just Mercy. So that’s what Tate went with, after a search of McMillian’s truck yielded no marijuana—although he had to explain to Walter what the word “sodomy” meant. Ralph Myers, the career criminal who testified that Walter McMillian killed Ronda Morrison, only to recant the entire story years later at Stevenson’s prodding, really did the things he’s shown doing in the movie. You haven’t been feeling well, and so you’re here so you can get better. NEWS (2 / 25 / 21) — Alabama: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11 th Circuit has denied habeas relief for Alabama death-row prisoner Charles Clark, who the trial court had sentenced to death based upon a non‑u… From 1812 to 1927, the primary method of execution was hanging. Stevenson’s fight to prove McMillian’s innocence is the true story behind the upcoming film, Just Mercy. She was 20 when convicted of the torture murder of a classmate she committed at age 18. She was 20 when convicted of the torture murder of a classmate she committed at age 18. The morning after his disastrous 60 Minutes interview aired, Chapman told the paper, “For them to hold themselves up as a reputable news show is beyond belief and irresponsible.”, In the movie’s scene in which Tate arrests McMillian, he taunts him by saying things like, “Those rims look like they cost you a pretty penny—who’ve you been working for?” That’s shitty, but in Walter McMillian’s version of the story, as reported in court filings, Tate said much worse: “He said he was going to stop us niggers from fucking these white women himself. A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row. Top 10 Death Penalty Movies by caspian1978 | created - 18 Jan 2014 | updated - 18 Jan 2014 | Public A list of movies that deal with Capital Punishment Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc. (He decided it was not, and Baldwin has been dead for 20 years now.). JAKE GILES NETTER/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Obama and Springsteen’s Podcast Isn’t What It Pretends to Be, Why the University of Texas Cannot Force Athletes to Stand for Its Racist Song, Woody Allen defending himself against molestation charges, he’d pocketed more than $110,000 in funds the state paid him to feed inmates, the vicious and brutal killing of a young lady in the first full flower of adulthood, decided to let the State of Alabama execute a man named Brian Baldwin. "Just Mercy," a movie about the case, opens in theaters this week, In November 1992, an Alabama man who had been on death row for almost six years told 60 Minutes the state was preparing to execute the wrong person. Today, the primary method is lethal injection, although inmates convicted prior to 2002 can choose to be executed by electrocution or lethal injection. Besides McMillian, the segment features the real Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), the real Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson), the real Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall), and … On February 22, 2018, Alabama death row Doyle Lee Hamm was scheduled to die by lethal injection for killing a man. In the movie, Richardson tells the Army to send the flag from his funeral to Stevenson, because he was “the only one who cared enough to fight for me.” In real life, Richardson got married while in prison, and, according to Just Mercy, kept bugging Stevenson to make sure the military sent his flag to his new wife’s address. The film is about inertia as much as anything: When Stevenson looks into McMillian’s case, it is immediately apparent he had nothing to do with the crime, but it still takes years to clear his name, simply because the gears of justice have started grinding. Photo illustration by Slate. In 1992, Ed Bradley reported that the wrong man might have been sitting on Alabama's death row. Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson took on Alabama death row inmate Walter McMillian’s case in post-conviction. All rights reserved. © 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Over the course of the movie, the guard has a quiet change of heart while observing Stevenson at work and life on death row, which is dramatized by improved treatment of Stevenson and McMillian both. Larson explained why she found Ansley inspirational at this year’s Variety Power of Women event, then brought her out on stage to talk about her work: In the 1980s, Ansley was running a project pairing condemned men with lawyers in Alabama while Stevenson was doing similar work at the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee. Circumstantial Evidence goes much deeper into Myers’ ties to the other people involved in the case, but Just Mercy gets the details pertinent to McMillian’s fight for freedom right.His testimony at McMillian’s first trial was a ridiculous story that was impossible to reconcile with the physical evidence. Though “Just Mercy” spends time with several of the death row inmates Stevenson has represented, most of its focus is on McMillian, and the film truly comes alive when the two men meet. Just Mercy follows Stevenson’s self-portrait in his memoir very closely. 105 likes. All of the 67 people (66 men and 1 woman) have been executed at the Holman Correctional Facility, near Atmore, Alabama.All executions since December 2002 have been by lethal injection.. (Bernard Troncale) When Anthony Ray Hinton walked free from Death Row in April 2015 after spending almost 30 years trapped in a 5-by-7-foot cell, … At trial, Sibley and Block, who has said she prefers the name Lynda Lyon, said they fired at Motley and his patrol car in self- defense after the officer touched his holster. Michael B. Jordan plays the idealistic defense attorney, and Jamie Foxx plays Johnny D. The film opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. Faced with public opprobrium, Tate told the Monroe Journal, “It hurts my feelings to be accused of doing something wrong.”, The judge at McMillian’s criminal trial—the one who decided that the death penalty was more appropriate than the life sentence the jury had decided on—really was named Robert E. Lee Key, Jr., and really did describe the crime as “the vicious and brutal killing of a young lady in the first full flower of adulthood.” Not too surprisingly, McMillian’s case is not the only stain on his record: In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to let the State of Alabama execute a man named Brian Baldwin. by: Erica Pettway, Ariel Cochran, CNN . He told me he was going to stop that.” And then Tate said, according to McMillian, “I ought to take you off and hang you like we done that nigger in Mobile, but we can’t stand that suit.”. Attorney Bryan Stevenson took McMillian’s case in 1988, and in 1993 secured McMillian’s freedom after demonstrating that the prosecution had withheld evidence and pressured their star witness into lying. List of People Executed in Alabama Since 1983 # Name Race Age Sex Date of Execution … What right did he have to come lecture me about morals? By Josh Terry ... “Just Mercy” is a legal drama about the plight of a wrongly convicted inmate on death row in Alabama. Alabama death row biopic ‘Just Mercy’ in theaters Friday Local News. Intellectual Disability. And they are in cells on death row in Alabama. *Spoilers for "Just Mercy" below* Walter McMillan spent six years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, but even after the Alabama resident was exonerated, he remained tormented by his years behind bars. DEAD TIME. Crucially, Tate arrested McMillian in his truck, which gave him a pretext to drive the truck to the police station—Tate drove it personally—which made it possible to have a prisoner who said he knew something about the case see the truck and positively identify it as the one he claimed he’d seen outside the cleaners around the time of the shooting, which gave Tate the minimum number of witnesses he’d need to charge McMillian with Morrison’s murder. Ex-judges, others urge retrial for Alabama death row inmate. By Bob Blalock. Except for 60 Minutes and a constant scrum of reporters outside the courthouse, the media is mostly absent from this story about someone being railroaded—for a movie with the exact opposite problem, see Richard Jewell—and that’s a shame, because Chapman spent almost the entire process complaining to the Monroe Journal about the case. Last Updated: 03/12/2021. system on the night of his execution, though. Sibley also received a death sentence and remains on death row. The incident actually happened during the reading of the initial guilty verdict, before Stevenson was involved, and Earley and Stevenson don’t agree about all the facts—Stevenson has the courtroom tackle, Earley has Sheriff Tate issuing an arrest warrant for Johnny afterwards and making his mom drive him back to court be booked—but in both versions, Tate claimed Johnny said something along the lines of “Somebody’s going to pay for what they’ve done to my father.”, Tate also seems to have been the government official who was most reluctant to accept that McMillian was innocent, even after he was finally released from prison. Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx star in the fact-based death row drama 'Just Mercy,' directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, also starring Brie Larson. 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. Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of February 22, 2021. (Nick Frontiero/HBO via AP) (Nick Frontiero/HBO via AP) It seems he’s always looking over details on death penalty cases from his Montgomery, Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative. Earley goes into more detail about the political pressures Tate and Chapman were under, but the circumstances under which McMillian ended up in prison were even dodgier than they appear in the movie. Now a free man after the State of Alabama dropped all charges against him, he takes listeners back to the echoing corridors of death row and introduces them to his book club. Similarly, there really was a recording of Myers insisting he knew nothing about the murder, and the prosecution really didn’t turn it over to the defense, and his testimony, which nearly got Walter McMillian killed, really was that absurd on its face. 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. Besides McMillian, the segment features the real Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), the real Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson), the real Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall), and a pantheon of the film’s minor characters. Tate couldn’t charge Walter McMillian with the murder of Ronda Morrison on the basis of Ralph Myers’ testimony alone, but Myers’ say-so was enough to arrest him on a sodomy charge. It nevertheless got McMillian sentenced to death. "I have never had a case where the state's only evidence of guilt comes from one person, where there's no motive, there's no physical evidence, there's no corroborating circumstances," Bryan Stevenson, the attorney who took on McMillian's appeal case, told Bradley. Prior to 1983, an 18-year moratorium on executions was observed under the direction of the Supreme Court of the United States. She retired in 2008. Two white good old boys deciding how justice would be dispensed in Monroe County.”, But the biggest thing missing from Just Mercy’s portrait of Chapman is his relationship to the press. The 63-year-old Prichard native had been a condemned man for 32 years, 8 months and 20 days, longer than any prisoner has ever spent on death row in Alabama… March 27, 2018 Lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his longtime client, Anthony Ray Hinton, in 2015 following Hinton's release from Alabama's Death Row. They’re directly next to each other. The only judge who comes out of the movie (or the books about the real-life McMillian case) without looking terrible is Judge Pamela Baschab (played by Rhoda Griffis in the movie), who issued the order that finally freed McMillian. He’d made the national news again that February, when it emerged that he’d pocketed more than $110,000 in funds the state paid him to feed inmates, the beneficiary of an old Alabama law that allowed sheriffs to keep any excess money they didn’t spend on prison food. Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, Wetumpka, Alabama, where women on death row are housed. Please? An overwhelmingly white jury sentenced him to life in prison, but the judge overrode the jury and condemned him to die. But after the couple broke up, Richardson decided the best way to win her back was to plant a bomb on her porch, then save her from it. But judging from Stevenson’s memoir, Larson’s performance is true to life. All contents © 2021 The Slate Group LLC. Then they would know to focus on their education, making a plan for their life, and staying on the right path. But for all the harm Key did, he wasn’t the most frustrating judge in the McMillian affair. McMillian was convicted after a trial that lasted only a day and a half. Herbert Richardson, the Vietnam veteran whose execution Stevenson attends after failing to save him from the death penalty, was a real client, but the movie doesn’t dwell on how he got there. Then he stared crying. McMillan — whose story is depicted in the movie “Just Mercy” premiering Christmas Day 2019 — never got the happy ending he deserved after his release from prison in 1993. Death row inmates: Alabama 'reviewing its options' after Supreme Court upholds death row inmate's claim. And is the real murderer still out there somewhere?" … When McMillian died, the Monroe Journal—a newspaper whose vitriolic coverage of his trial and its aftermath is well documented in both books—ran an obituary that did not mention his trial. Tate has categorically denied saying any of this. The recently-released movie “Just Mercy” shines a spotlight on the problems with Alabama’s death penalty. Photo courtesy of Slate. ‘Just Mercy’: A Real-Life Legal Drama About an American Hero Michael B. Jordan plays a real-life death-row lawyer defending an accused killer in Alabama By Sharon Lynn Pruitt. The recently-released movie “Just Mercy” shines a spotlight on the problems with Alabama’s death penalty. When she moved to Alabama, he followed but the two broke up. This is a hospital.”, “They’ve got me again, and you’ve got to help me.”. Christa Gail Pike (born March 10, 1976) is an American convicted murderer, and the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. Richardson spent 11 years in all on death row, during which he busied himself painting religious works of art, according to UPI’s report. For a thumbnail sketch of the facts, here’s the 60 Minutes report about McMillian’s case that is featured in the movie. (1-20-20) “I know he’s innocent,” Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy and real life star behind the movie by the same name, assured me when we first talked in 1991. After the Alabama Bureau of Investigation reopened the Morrison case, independently investigated, and failed to find any evidence at all that McMillian had anything to do with the murder, Tate was still going around saying things like, “It seems to me that we had a pretty airtight case until those two ABI boys pulled into town.”, Naturally, Tate’s behavior crippled his career in Alabama law enforcement, and—wait, he actually remained the sheriff of Monroe County until 2018, when he decided not to seek re-election because of his age. by Kim Chandler, The Associated Press. … Well, I’m just as smart as that guy, even if I didn’t go to Harvard. The true story behind “Just Mercy” In November 1992, an Alabama man who had been on death row for almost six years told 60 Minutes the state was preparing to execute the wrong person. For an introduction to what he’s like today, here is his 2012 TED Talk. It aired on Nov. 22, 1992, and if that seems like a long time ago, it was the middle segment in an episode that also featured Woody Allen defending himself against molestation charges and a piece about a grassroots anti-deficit group that was coincidentally funded by a private equity billionaire, so how long ago could it have been? They’re going to execute me for no good reason, and I don’t want to die in no electric chair.” He was crying now with a forcefulness that alarmed me. The real Stevenson, circa 1992, is heavily featured in the 60 Minutes segment above. "That '60 Minutes' piece helped Walter McMillian get off death row." Posted: Jan 10, 2020 / 10:05 AM CST / Updated: Jan 10, 2020 / 12:06 PM CST (WIAT & CNN) — “Black Panther” and “Creed” actor Michael B. Jordan takes on a role based on an actual Alabama man in his latest film, “Just Mercy” available nationwide Deisy. There are other aspects of Richardson’s story where the film diverges from Stevenson’s book. A judge thought it was enough to sentence McMillian to the electric chair. He did really play “The Old Rugged Cross” over the prison P.A. Today, he’s one of 175 prisoners on death row in Alabama, in the same prison where Dominique Ray was recently executed. as McMillian, in a case overseen by Key in which Pearson called the defendant, who was black, “that savage,” Key called the defendant “boy,” black jurors were systematically excluded, and Key was asked to adjudicate whether or not his own behavior had been racist. Death row drama ‘Just Mercy’ has a stellar cast, but leaves you wondering what could have been. California Privacy/Information We Collect. Posted: Jan 10, 2020 / 10:05 AM CST / Updated: Jan 10, 2020 / 12:06 PM CST (WIAT & CNN) — “Black Panther” and “Creed” actor Michael B. Jordan takes on a role based on an actual Alabama man in his latest film, “Just Mercy” available nationwide Deisy. At one point, Mr. Hinton had the opportunity to speak to a group of students from Hayes K-8. World-renowned civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson works to free a wrongly condemned death row … Even being completely exonerated didn’t end the torment the state of Alabama caused him. The acclaimed film portrays Bryan Stevenson’s successful battle to prove a death row convict’s innocence – a case that launched his life’s work of confronting America’s racism All police had was an alleged witness, a career criminal who was doing time for another murder. Feature length documentary about Bill Kuenzel who has spent over three decades on Alabama's death row proclaiming innocence. At one point, Mr. Hinton had the opportunity to speak to a group of students from Hayes K-8. They had no fingerprints, no ballistic tests, and no physical evidence of any kind linking McMillian, known to his friends as Johnny D., or anyone else to the scene. The film traces his journey from indifference to McMillian’s case—he wasn’t the original prosecutor—to fanatical opposition to McMillian’s release, to grudging acceptance of McMillian’s innocence in exactly the same way the book does, and Chapman really did all those things. They’re directly next to each other. He suggested that every young person should spend a month at Holman. DEAD TIME: Documentary film about death row inmate Bill Kuenzel. "A jury was convinced they got the right man, but you may not be after you watch this story.". Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Christa Gail Pike (born March 10, 1976) is an American convicted murderer, and the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. The movie doesn't delve into why Richardson was on Death Row. At the time of Ludie Mae’s death, Rocky was living across the street from her with his wife and children on one side of a converted duplex. He also showed that the prosecution had illegally suppressed exculpatory evidence. He moved to Alabama to follow a nurse he had met at the hospital, dated her, and was happy, for a time. Votes: 110,402 | … Walter McMillian’s ordeal is more or less accurately portrayed in Just Mercy: He was arrested in 1987 and charged with the murder of Ronda Morrison, an 18-year-old white woman who was shot in broad daylight at the Monroeville, Alabama dry-cleaning shop where she worked. Alabama death row biopic ‘Just Mercy’ in theaters Friday Local News. It tells the true story of Walter McMillian, a black man … For his part, Stevenson was apparently even less of a fan of Chapman’s in real life than he appears to be in either version of Just Mercy. A brief signed by several former prosecutors, including former Alabama … In 1988, they secured federal funding to set up the nonprofit that eventually became the Equal Justice Initiative. Newly paroled ex-con and former U.S. Ranger Cameron Poe finds himself trapped in a prisoner transport plane when the passengers seize control. “We were all banging on the bars to protest, to make ourselves feel better, but really it just made me sick,” McMillian said about one execution during his time there. Birmingham, Ala. (Reuters) - A man who has been on death row in Alabama for nearly three decades is expected to walk free on the orders of a local judge, officials said on Thursday. As you can see in the 60 Minutes clip, Tim Blake Nelson’s performance eerily recreates Myers’ tics and delivery, while Just Mercy’s makeup team recreate the injuries Myers suffered in a childhood fire. Also featured: death row at Holman Prison, meticulously recreated in the movie, plus a news report about McMillian’s exoneration. We invite you to learn more about the clients featured in the book below. At the time of her murder, Walter McMillian was at a church fish fry with dozens of … Just Mercy is structured like a standard legal thriller—secrets uncovered, wrongs righted, justice done, and so on—with one exception, which is that no one is punished in the end.
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