mcmillian

Walter "Johnny D." McMillian (October 27, 1941 – September 11, 2013) was an African-American pulpwood worker from Monroeville, Alabama, who was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury; in the 1988 trial, the judge overrode the jury's life imprisonment sentence using a unique and controversial Alabama practice called "judge override", and imposed a sentence of capital punishment. From 1990 to 1993, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals turned down four appeals; in 1993, after McMillian had served six years on Alabama's death row, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the lower court decision and ruled that he had been wrongfully convicted.
The controversial case received national attention beginning in the fall of 1992, when it was featured in the CBS News program 60 Minutes. Two books have been written on the case, one of which has been adapted into a feature film.

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