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Summary: Chapter Three: Trials and Tribulation—Part I
Chapter Three returns to Walter McMillian, whom Ralph Myers accused of sexual assault, in addition to the murders, after an officer suggested the idea. Sheriff Tom Tate arrested Walter for sodomy, all the while taunting him with racial slurs and threats. Since Ralph’s story about the events on the day of Ronda Morrison’s murder made little sense, law officers got Bill Hooks, a jailhouse informant, to corroborate Walter’s involvement by saying he saw Walter’s truck at the location of Ronda’s murder. Law enforcement finally charged Walter even though he had an alibi on the day of the murder: He spent that day at his home with family and neighbors. Still, Sheriff Tate refused to release Walter, even after Ralph recanted his story.
Both Ralph and Walter were placed in pretrial detention on death row, a move that was illegal. At the time, Alabama’s death row in Holman Correctional Facility held about one hundred prisoners in tiny, windowless cells. When Walter arrived, prisoners were talking about a recent botched execution in the electric chair. Walter initially thought that he would be released once his alibi checked out, but as the weeks went by, he grew fearful and worried. His family hired two civil rights attorneys, but they failed to persuade officials to release Walter. Other prisoners told Walter to file a complaint, a task that was beyond the abilities of barely literate Walter.
Summary: Chapter Three: Trials and Tribulation—Part II
The second part of Chapter Three explains that in another section of the prison, Ralph broke down and called Sheriff Tate, offering to testify against Walter to get off death row. With Ralph as a primary witness, the district attorney, Ted Pearson, believed he could convict Walter and scheduled the trial. Walter likely would be judged by a predominately white jury even though Monroe County had a high Black population. Stevenson explains the history of prosecutors excluding Black jurors despite Supreme Court rulings against this practice. When Walter’s lawyers filed a motion to change the trial venue, the district attorney did not object, but the judge selected a county with a small Black population. Still, based on the evidence, Walter didn’t believe he would be convicted. Ralph balked at testifying for a few months, so the trial was rescheduled for more than a year after Walter was sent to death row.
The narrative then shifts to after the trial, when Walter has been convicted of capital murder. As he is being returned to death row, he reflects on his trial. The jury was almost all white. Ralph and the informant Bill Hooks gave their testimony, and a third man identified Walter’s truck at the murder location. Walter’s lawyers only called three witnesses to prove Walter was at home at the time of the murder. One white man who had stopped by Walter’s house claimed that it was a different day. Three hours after beginning deliberation, the jury declared Walter guilty.
Analysis
Fear serves as an incredibly effective tool for those who engage in systemic racism to uphold a twisted version of justice. Sheriff Tate’s arrest of McMillian includes a tirade of racial slurs and threats of lynching, revealing the rampant racism sometimes employed by high-ranking law enforcement officials. The Sheriff’s disturbing behavior is not only a terrible relic of a long-gone past. Stevenson details Tate’s reference, using the word we, suggesting his own involvement with a Klu Klux Klan lynching. Stevenson notes that McMillian was terrified, illustrating that the Sheriff’s approach has the intended effect. Authorities use the fear present in the community following the murder and the public distaste of interracial relationships to falsely portray McMillian as a dangerous man. Stevenson notes that all of the district attorneys in Alabama at the time are white, though sixteen counties have a majority Black population. In addition, in spite of jury selection laws to the contrary, almost every inmate on death row was tried by a jury that was almost all or completely white. Through McMillian’s story, as well as statistics about the justice system, Stevenson highlights both the personal and systemic aspects of racism and fear.
While facts form the foundation of the ideal of justice, in the McMillian case, feelings trump facts. Stevenson illustrates how pressure from the public and their own frustration leads members of law enforcement to arrest McMillian not based on facts, but on a shocking and false sodomy accusation. Furthermore, he notes that an officer used Myers’s apparent fear of McMillian to suggest the sexual assault. The community’s joy that someone has been charged and the accolades for officers are the reason for the arrest, not facts or evidence. Stevenson notes Tate’s eagerness to make an arrest, though numerous witnesses tell him that McMillian is innocent. With no investigation of McMillian’s whereabouts or background, just rumors and the knowledge of his affair with a white woman, Tate’s refusal to admit failure suggests emotions are more important than facts. The Sheriff’s denial of facts is no mere accident as illustrated by his willingness to push ahead, even threatening Myers with death row when he recants his testimony. Reliance on feelings over facts does not stop with the police. Stevenson notes that the district attorney views the case as one of the most important of his career and wants to retire with a victory.
Stevenson’s exploration of the unjust treatment of disfavored people expands as more stories are woven into the narrative, showing that disfavored may refer to anyone other than the people in power. For Walter McMillian, being Black puts him in this category. McMillian’s relationship with a white woman puts him on the Sheriff’s radar, highlighting the racial bias of law enforcement in Southern Alabama. This discrimination may have deadly consequences, as Stevenson notes that most of the prisoners on death row are Black. Financial status also plays a role as Stevenson notes that all of the prisoners on death row are poor. Though McMillian owns his own business, increasing law enforcement’s suspicions as he doesn’t work for a white business owner, his family is not wealthy. When the family raises money for McMillian’s initial defense attorneys, the justice system in Monroeville sees the funds as evidence of McMillian’s criminal behavior. The unjust treatment extends to Ralph Myers, easily manipulated due to his poverty and lack of education. Throughout Just Mercy, Myers exposes the system’s mistreatment of Black citizens, children, pregnant women, the mentally ill, and people in poverty — those who lack the resources, financial or otherwise, to fight back.
