Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993 TAG: 9303030219
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BAY MINETTE, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
MAN LEAVES DEATH ROW CLEARED OF ALA. KILLING
A man condemned to death 4 1/2 years ago walked out of his prison cell for the last time Tuesday: to freedom, not to the electric chair. Prosecutors conceded he was wrongly convicted."God knows I'm innocent," Walter D. McMillian said.
He was freed by a state judge who dismissed all charges with the backing of Monroe County District Attorney Tommy Chapman.
Chapman told Baldwin County Circuit Court Judge Pam Baschab that three key witnesses lied about McMillian being present when an 18-year-old dry cleaners clerk, Ronda Morrison, was shot to death during a robbery at work in Monroeville on Nov. 1, 1986.
The murder outraged the small farming town, which is widely known as the setting for the book "To Kill a Mockingbird." The book's plot involves the defense of a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman.
McMillian, 52, who is black, said he believed race was a factor in his arrest in 1987. He had been jailed since then and was sentenced to death on Sept. 19, 1988. The victim, who was shot three times in the head, was white.
Chapman, who didn't handle the prosecution, denied McMillian was singled out because he's black.
Defense attorney Bryan Stevenson said McMillian was due an apology from the state. He got none during the 10-minute hearing.
"The state of Alabama has taken six years from Mr. McMillian . . . called him the worst kind of human being and that his life has no value, no purpose," Stevenson said. He wouldn't say whether McMillian would seek damages.
Stevenson said the real lesson to take from the experience is that "what happened today could happen tomorrow." He said it was "too easy" to frame McMillian, and "too hard" to convince the court of his innocence.
The key prosecution witness at McMillian's 1988 trial was Ralph Bernard Myers, who later recanted his story that he saw McMillian at the murder scene.
McMillian said he was at home. His family backed his alibi.
Myers is serving a 30-year sentence for the robbery. He pleaded to a reduced charge of murder, but claims he didn't kill the woman. He avoided the death penalty by testifying against McMillian. Two other men split a $7,000 reward for identifying McMillian as the killer.
Chapman said prosecuting the witnesses could be difficult because the three-year limit on bringing perjury charges has expired.
"I've forgiven the people that lied on me and put me in jail," McMillian said.
McMillian's wife, Minnie Belle McMillian, 50, said: "Nothing, nothing can be done to return those six years. Six years is a long time."
Last week, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the capital-murder conviction. The court said the state had suppressed evidence that could have demonstrated McMillian's innocence or damaged the testimony of the key witnesses. The ruling cleared the way for prosecutors to agree to drop the case against McMillian.