Bryan Stevenson

It's completely illegal.

That's right.

So the lawyers didn't complain about the fact that the newspapers were now saying Death Row defendant Walter McMillan will be arraigned next week.

Death Row defendant.

They were already characterizing him as

as someone who should get the death penalty.

The trial takes place and lasts for a day and a half.

These two witnesses give these false testimony.

Oddly, the jury comes back after convicting him and says, we think he should be sentenced to life without parole.

I think they knew that there was no credible evidence against him and they didn't... Even though they convicted him.

Even though they convicted him.

And their compromise was to sentence him to life without parole.

But Alabama...

It allowed its trial judges, its elected trial judges, to override jury verdicts of life and impose the death penalty.

So the judge immediately overrode that life sentence and imposed a death sentence.

So Mr. McMillan is sent back to death row, and I got involved after he had been sentenced and quickly learned.

about all of the problems with the case.

First of all, I went into the community, the people who were with him, and they came up to me and they'd say, Mr. Stevenson, we feel like we've been convicted too.

We feel like we've been sentenced to death too.

We were with him.