The True Story That Inspired Just Mercy

It all started on November 1, 1986. That's when an 18-year-old junior college student named Ronda Renee Morrison went to work at her part-time job at a local Monroeville dry cleaner, just like she undoubtedly had countless times before. That day, though, someone carrying a small-caliber pistol walked in, shot her, took $50 out of the cash register, and left.

Within days, The Montgomery Advertiser was reporting that dozens had been questioned in the murder, but with no concrete leads, there was a $16,000 reward being offered for help in finding her killer. Still, in spite of the reward, months went by. Eight months after Morrison's murder, police arrested a man named Ralph Myers in connection with another killing in a nearby county. According to The New York Times, a week into his arrest, Myers gave police something shocking: Morrison's killer, he said, was a man named Walter McMillian. 

McMillian was no one's chief suspect — not until Myers pointed the finger. He was an ordinary person living an ordinary life... almost. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, he did have one massive mark on his record: he'd had an affair with a married, white woman, and when she and her husband went through a very public and very messy divorce, McMillian was in the spotlight. It was just a frighteningly short hop, skip, and a jump to make the leap to the conclusion that he was someone capable of cold-blooded murder.

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