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Walter started his own pulpwood business. He smartly and bravely borrowed money to buy his own power saw, tractor, and pulpwood truck. He had developed a solid business that didn't make much extra money but afforded him something else he valued: independence.

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Walter couldn't escape the reality of racism, but having his own business gave him a flexibility that many African Americans did not enjoy.

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Though he and his wife, Minnie, had three children, it was well known that he was romantically involved with other women. "Tree work" is notoriously demanding and dangerous. With few ordinary comforts in his life, the attention of women was something Walter did not easily resist.

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Walter grew up understanding that it was forbidden for a black man to be intimate with a white woman. He didn't initially think much of the flirtations of Karen Kelly, a young white woman he'd met at the Waffle House where he ate breakfast. Fears of interracial sex and marriage have deep roots in the United States. In the aftermath of slavery, the creation of a system of racial hierarchy and segregation was largely designed to prevent relationships like Walter and Karen's.

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In the late morning of November 1, 1986, Ronda Morrison, a white eighteen-year-old college student, was found shot dead on the floor of Monroe Cleaners, the shop where she had worked. Murder was uncommon in Monroeville. The death of young Ronda was a crime unlike anything the community had ever experienced. She was popular, an only child, and the kind of girl whom the entire white community embraced as a daughter.

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Karen Kelly began to associate with Ralph Myers. The relationship with Myers brought Karen to rock bottom. Together they became involved in dealing drugs. They were also implicated in another surprising crime. The murder of Vickie Lynn Pittman.

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Myers eventually admitted that he may have played an accidental role in Pittman's death, but quickly put the blame for the murder itself on others (Walter)

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Tate told him he was under arrest. When Walter frantically asked the sheriff what he had done, the sheriff told him that he was being charged with sodomy, Walter was then Arrested.

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This second witness gave law enforcement officials what they needed to charge Walter McMillian with capital murder in the shooting death of Ronda Morrison. There was joy and relief in the community. Finally, someone had been charged.

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On August 1, 1987, they transferred both Myers and Walter from the county jail to death row-but on seperate floors so they wouldn't interact