Walter McMillian LoR

Modified 6 Months After the Crime

“We even tracked down Clay Kast, the white mechanic who had modified Walter’s truck and converted it to a low-rider. He confirmed the work had been done over 6 months after the murder of Ronda Morrison. This proved that McMillian’s truck had had no special modifications or special features and therefore could not have been the truck described by Myers and Hooks at the trial.” (132)

Bill Hookes was Working

“We were working together all day. We both worked at NAPA auto parts store last November. I remember that Saturday when the girl was killed because ambulances and police started racing up the street. I’d been working in town for a couple of years and had never seen anything like it [...] [I was working] with Bill Hooks from about eight in the morning till we closed, after all them ambulances went by our shop [...] Bill was working on a car in the shop with me. There ain’t but one way out the store; he never left the entire morning.” (105-106)

Paid by the County

“We discovered that Bill Hooks had been paid by Sheriff Tate for his testimony against Walter—we found checks in the county’s financial records showing close to $5,000 in payments to Hooks in reward money and “expenses.” Sheriff Tate had also paid Hooks money to travel back and forth out of the county around the time of the trial.” (131)

Paid by the County

City Fines and Charges Dismissed

“We also found out that Hooks had been released from jail immediately after giving the police his statement that he’d seen Walter’s “low-rider” truck at the cleaners on the day of the murder. We found court records revealing that the D.A. and the sheriff, who are county officials, had somehow gotten city charges and fines against Hooks dismissed, even though they had no authority in city courts." (131)

Threatened with Death

"He was promised not to be executed if he testified against Walter. A feew days before the murder charges against WM were made public, Ralph told police his allegations weren’t true. Police put Ralph on death row to pressure him into giving them a testimony." (52)

Threatened with Death

Myers Confessed to Perjury

“I lied. Everything I said at McMillian’s trial was a lie. I’ve lost a lot of sleep and have been in a lot of pain over this. I can’t be quiet any longer. [...] It was all a lie. What I’m going to tell you is going to blow your mind, Mr. Stevenson. [...] I finally told the group, ‘Well, I can top all you sons ’a bitches, I done put a damn man on death row by lying in damn court.’ ” (135)

Multiple People Know he Lied

Multiple People know he Lied

"He said that he had told lots of people – from the DA on down – that he had been coerced testified falsely against Walter. If even half of what he said was true, there were a lot of people involved in this case who knew, from the mouth of his soul accuser, that Walter McMillian had nothing to do with the murder of Ronda Morrison." (136)

Strange Story

"Ralph Myer's story of the crime was pretty far-fetched; his knack for dramatic embellishment made even the most basic allegations unnecessarily complicated [...] [Ralph Myers account of what happened is], in summary, an African American man planning a robbery-murder in the heart of Monroeville in the middle of the day stops at a gas station and randomly selects a white man to become his accomplice by asking him to drive him to and from teh crime scene because his arm is injured, even though he had been able to drive himself to the gas station where he encountered Myers and to drive his truck home after returning Myers to the gas station." (49)

Strange Story

Myers Didn't Know Walter

“We found the white man who was running the store on the day that Ralph Myers came in for the purpose of giving a note to Walter… The storeowner recounted his memory of that day: Myers had sought out Walter – but had to ask the storeowner which of the several black men in the store was Walter McMillian. Months after the crime, the storeowner was adamant that Myers had never seen Walter McMillian before.” (131)

Fish Fry Flyer

"In a church basement, Walter's sister found flyers advertising the fish fry held at Walter's house; they confirmed that the event had taken place on the same day as the Morrison murder. A white storeowner who had no relationship to Walter or his family had kept a copy of that flyer for some reason, and he confirmed that he had recieved it before the Morrison murder." (131-132)

Many Witnesses saw him

Many witnesses saw him

"There were at least a dozen church parishioners at the house all morning with Walter and his family on the day Ronda Morrison was murdered [..] He had decided to replace the transmission in his truck and called over his mechanic friend, Jimmy Hunter, to help. [...] By 11 o'clock relatives had arrived and had started frying fish and other foods to sell [...] Police reported that the Morrison murder took place around 10:15 AM, eleven miles or so from McMillian's home, at the same time that a dozen church members were at Walter's home selling food while Walter and Jimmy worked on his truck. (51)

Police Officer saw Walter

"That group included a police officer who stopped by the house to buy a sandwich and noted in his police log that he had bought food at McMillian's house with Walter and a crowd of church folks present." (51-52)

Police Officer saw Walter