For every 9 people on death row executed in the United States, 1 innocent inmate is exonerated. This shocking statistic speaks volumes about the inefficiency of a justice system that often condemns without sufficient evidence and, combined with institutional racial prejudices, it is the minorities that tend to suffer the most from such miscarriages of justice. 'Just Mercy', the story of a wrongfully convicted black man and the lawyer that fights to free him from death row, is a drama that explores one such false accusation with such attention to the complexities and prejudices of the legal system that it ended up on Barack Obama's shortlist of his favourite films of 2019. Starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson and directed by Destin Cretton, 'Just Mercy' tells the true story of how Alabama county convicted Walter "Johnny D." McMillian for a brutal murder despite substantial evidence against the charge, and how lawyer Bryan Stevenson fought for six years to lift the charges.
Based on the real Bryan Stevenson's 2014 memoir of the same name, which went on to be a #1 New York Times Bestseller, 'Just Mercy' is dedicated to accurately detailing the events that took place between McMillian's conviction in 1988 and Stevenson's successful attempt at dismissing all charges in 1993. Though the tale is adapted for cinematic storytelling on screen, the story behind it is disturbingly far from fictional.
The Crime
The 18-year-old white woman Ronda Morrison was found dead in Jackson Cleaners in Monroeville, Alabama on the 1st November 1986. The scene of the crime suggested a brutal struggle, with Ronda Morrison having been bludgeoned, strangled and shot three times in the back before succumbing to her injuries. There were very few leads on the case and the police faced mounting pressure to arrest someone for Morrison's murder. Tom Tate, the newly-elected sheriff, grew increasingly desperate to wrap up the case before his credentials were stained in the early days of his new role.
Ralph Myers, a white man with a lengthy criminal record, was arrested on suspicion of having murdered another woman in a neighbouring county. Seeing an opportunity to link the cases, Tate and the local police informed Myers that they believed that he was also responsible for Morrison's death. However, Myers was not the only culprit that the law enforcement officers wished to point the finger at: they also suspected the 45-year-old Walter "Johnny D." McMillian, a married logger with a criminal record that was completely clear aside from a minor misdemeanour charge for a bar brawl. McMillian was largely resented by his community due to having an affair with a white woman, Karen Kelly. His son had also married a white woman, and the McMillian men's perceived audaciousness in pursuing mixed-race relationships had led to them being somewhat vilified and mistrusted by their local community in Alabama. The police told Myers that they believed that he and McMillian had committed the crime in tandem to which Myers, a lifelong criminal, confessed, stating that he had remained in the car whilst McMillian had entered the dry cleaner. Myers allegedly heard a series of popping sounds and, upon entering the building himself, saw that McMillian had murdered Morrison.
Despite an almost spotless criminal record and an ironclad alibi, Tom Tate arrested McMillian on the charge of murder in June 1987.
The Trial
McMillian fought with Tate about his arrest, stating that he had been at his local church's fish fry at the time of the murder and therefore could not have committed the crime, it being both a temporal and geographical impossibility. Tate ignored McMillian's rationale and, in a shocking breach of protocol, sent McMillian straight to death row, where he remained for 15 months before he finally appeared in court.
Much like the arrest itself, however, the trial stank of prejudice and skewed judgements. On the 15th August 1988, Judge Robert E. Lee Key made the decision to move the trial from a county that was 40% black to Baldwin County, an area of Alabama in which 86% of the demographic was white. The trial lasted a mere day and a half. Despite the fact that several witnesses stepped up to defend McMillian, backing up his alibi, and the fact that there was no actual physical evidence to support the accusations, Myers and three other witnesses also swore under oath that they had seen McMillian at the scene of the crime.
On the 17th August 1988, a jury formed by 11 white citizens and 1 African-American found McMillian guilty of murder. Though they suggested a punishment of a lifelong prison sentence, in September 1988, Judge Key overruled their judgement and imposed the death penalty, sending McMillian back to death row, where he would spend the next 5 years for a crime he did not commit.
The Lawyer
In 1989, Bryan Stevenson was a promising lawyer and Harvard graduate who moved to Montgomery, Alabama to found the non-profit organisation, Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). Working alongside his colleague, Eva Ansley, Stevenson and the EJI fought to provide legitimate legal representation to poor clients that could not afford such aid otherwise. It was through the EJI that Stevenson caught wind of McMillian's story. The whispers of injustice inspired him to travel to McMillian's community, where he met several witnesses who swore that they had been with McMillian in a location 11 miles away from the scene of the crime at the moment in which it was allegedly committed. They were extremely disillusioned by the trial, having told the police that McMillian had an alibi, only to be dismissed. Stevenson immediately saw how the structures of prejudice and privilege had been used against McMillian, and so he began to build a case defending the man's innocence.
Between 1990 and 1993, Stevenson submitted four appeals for a new trial. All four were denied under the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Even with a highly-educated lawyer on side, it appeared as though the entire state was working to keep McMillian unjustly imprisoned.
The Turning Point
In 1992, however, cracks began to form in the undeniably weak foundation on which McMillian had been convicted. Ralph Myers, who had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for Morrison's murder, came forward and confessed that his testimony at McMillian's trial had been false. McMillian knew nothing about the crime, Myers asserted, nor had he been present. In fact, Myers did not even know McMillian - he'd simply been pressured by the police to testify against McMillian, with several law enforcement officers threatening to send Myers to death row in his place should he not comply with their wishes. Even with this revelation, the state of Alabama refused to grant McMillian a new trial.
Myers' confession opened the floodgates, however, and soon two of the other witnesses that had testified against McMillian admitted to having committed perjury by fabricating a story about McMillian's involvement. From here on, the proof that McMillian had been falsely accused grew increasingly stronger. District Attorney Theodore Pearson was revealed to have failed to disclose a witness statement declaring that Morrison herself had been seen alive at the exact moment in which McMillian was said to have killed her. The real nail in the coffin, however, came when McMillian's lawyers discovered that Myers' confession tape had hidden footage. On this video tape was an audio recording in which Myers complained to the law enforcement officers about being forced to falsely accuse McMillian, a man he didn't even know. It became increasingly clear that the police had obstructed the course of justice to facilitate the arrest of an innocent man, ironically committing several crimes themselves in doing so, including paying witnesses to deliver false testimonies.
Stevenson saw that the insular environment of Alabama's legal system was hurting McMillian's case and so, in 1992, he took to the popular television show '60 Minutes' to ensure that the details of the trial were broadcast nationwide. The police now had nowhere to hide.
The Trial
After years of effort, Stevenson's fifth court appeal was finally granted. The judges unanimously agreed to suspend McMillian's conviction in favour of a new trial. At the trial, Stevenson demanded that all charges against McMillian were dropped. Within a week, McMillian went from being an inmate on death row to a man who had just won the court case that promised him his freedom.
On the 1st April 1993, Walter "Johnny D." McMillian was exonerated.
The Aftermath
Following his release, McMillian spoke out against the death penalty before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Comittee. "I am...deeply troubled by the way the criminal system treated me and the difficulty I had in proving my innocence", said McMillian. "I am also worried about others. I believe there are other people under sentence of death who like me are not guilty". McMillian went on to deliver the somber statement that provides the emotional core of 'Just Mercy': "Justice is forever shattered when we kill an innocent man".
Unfortunately, life was not smooth for McMillian after his release and exoneration. Despite attempting to file for a civil lawsuit against Tom Tate for falsely accusing him and encouraging fabricated testimonies, Tate was allowed to remain in his law enforcement post until his retirement in 2018.
Furthermore, McMillian's experiences on death row left lasting mental scars. Before McMillian's death in 2013, he was battling early on-set dementia. In the grips of the illness, as noted by Stevenson in his memoir, McMillian often believed that he was back on death row. The trauma that stayed with McMillian during his life and illness is further proof of the hugely detrimental effects that an ineffective justice system can have on individuals and society alike.
However, even today Stevenson and Ansley continue to work tirelessly to free innocent men from death row and to provide legal aid to those who need it the most. A self-identified social justice activist, Stevenson wrote 'Just Mercy' to expose the immorality of the justice system and draw attention to McMillian's heartbreaking case. By of August 2016, the Equal Justice Initiative had saved 125 men from unjust death penalties. McMillian's story of a wrongly-accused man is frightfully common yet, as shown by this statistic, people like Stevenson are fighting to change the narrative.
'Just Mercy' is in cinemas now.
