. >> the story focuses on walter mcmillan. there was a murder. a young white woman was murdered. the police could not solve the crime. a great deal of pressure. they were talking about impeaching the sheriff, sheriff, and we think they decided to arrest someone, and walter mcmillan became that man. he was having an interracial affair with a young white woman which brought him to the attention of law enforcement, so he was arrested and put on death row before the trial. the only case where i've had a a client put on death row. i was shocked by that fact. i was shocked by the fact that at the time of the crime he was 11 miles away with 20 people from his church raising money. it would have been so much better if he had been by himself. we feel like we have been convicted. the third the third thing that got me plugged into this case,, as soon as i filed a notice of appearance i got a call from the judge who told me he did not want me involved. he was convicted and sentenced to death. we got involved after the sentence. the book is about our efforts to expose his wrongful conviction.

would be arraigned tomorrow, walter mcmillan will be at pretrial hearings next weekend created this environment. the second thing i could believe when i went to see his family he told me at the time the crime took place they were with mr. mcmillan raising money for his sister's church and the crime was $11 a way. they repair the entire time. they knew he was innocent and was interesting to see the despair that created. they would come up to me and say it would be better if he was in the woods hunting by himself when this crime took place because at least then we could entertain the possibility he might be guilty but because we weren't there with him we feel we have been convicted too. the despair was tangible. you could feel it. when i got back to my office, this amazing incident where the judge sentenced in to death called me up, his name was robert e. leakey and he said i don't want you to take this case, you have nothing to do with this guy, trying to dissuade me from representing mr. mcmillan and with all those things going on it became a case that was too irresistible. but the

. >> the story focuses on walter mcmillan. there was a murder. a young white woman was murdered. the police could not solve the crime

we have people like walter mcmillan, who are exonerated and we do not own up to what we did. we tried to kill them for 10 years, 20 years, 33 years. we do not take any responsibility for that. we have to create a way of talking to people that fosters a more honest awareness of our obligation to be a little more humble. >> yeah. >> i go to germany and i like what i see. i like that it is a country soberly trying to reflect on the legacy of the holocaust. there is an awareness that we can't go back, we can't repeat. in this country, we don't do that. that allows arrogant people, arrogant judges, to say prideful things that add to the injury. it is hurtful to hear some of these narratives. we have to change that narrative, but still be hopeful. you're right, this conversation will make you discouraged, make you worry. i think one of the great challenges we have -- and this is why the church should be more vibrant and out there leading -- is we still have to find ways to be helpful. when they do that, they allow themselves to get comfortable with these realities. we have to be wi

walter mcmillan, you want to see it, pick up the book for yourself. thank you for being on booktv. >> booktv is on facebook. like us to get publishing news scheduling updates behind-the-scenes pictures and video, author information, talk about authors during live programs. facebook.com/booktv. >> tell me about the golden hour. what is and how did you come to write it? >> the golden hour is a thriller about crisis manager at the state department cast to respond when there is a coup in west africa. a close american ally has been deep posed. figure out what happened and fight through washington bureaucracy. it was inspired by my time as deputy assistant secretary of state for west africa under secretary condoleezza rice. when i left government i wanted to tell the story about these sausage machine of american foreign policy and what is america doing in places like west africa? when there's a crisis american policymakers make decisions during crisis time and how do they fight with each other which is how lot of decisions get made. i decided it would be mo

walter mcmillan was one of the first people i represented when i started this project in alabama in 1989 his case was one i started working on before. what struck me about it is when i went to death row and met him, the first thing he told me was he had been on death row for 15 months pretrial. >> pretrial. >> had never met anybody, never represented anybody. he was sent to death row before. so they were saying in the media, death row defendant will be at pretrial hearings and it created this environment. the second thing i could not believe was when i went to see his family they said at the time the crime took place, they were with mr. mcmillan raising money for his sister's church. the crime was 11 miles away and they were there the entire time. they knew he was innocent and it was interesting to see the despair that that created. >> can you imagine? >> it would have been so much better if he was out hunting in the woods by himself is at least then we could entertain the possibility he might be guilty. we were there with him so we feel we've been sent to death, too. the despair was tan

what happened to walter mcmillan, the lies that were told, what you showed and just the fight all the way through -- convictions,gful as you know, we now have 147 people proven innocent. person now proved one innocent which is a shocking rate of error. prosecutorial misconduct are some of the key components and it was certainly what we had here are the young white woman murdered in downtown monroeville. mr. mcmillan was not someone you would suspect of committing a crime. he was actually a 45-year-old african-american hard worker. his mistake was he was having an interracial affair with the young white woman related to one of the police officers. 2000 two thetil state constitution still prohibited interracial marriage. it was not enforceable after loving versus virginia but we could not get people to take it out of the conch -- constitution so these attitudes were very real. after seven months they were getting pressured and you see this pressure into these spaces where they do really unjust things. gun sales increasing, talking about impeaching the sheriff. they begin to put this cas

what happened to walter mcmillan, the lies that were told, what you showed and just the fight all the way through -- >> these wrongful convictions, as you know, we now have 147 people proven innocent. we have now proved one person innocent which is a shocking rate of error. prosecutorial misconduct are some of the key components and it was certainly what we had here are the young white woman murdered in downtown monroeville. mr. mcmillan was not someone you would suspect of committing a crime. he was actually a 45-year-old african-american hard worker. his mistake was he was having an interracial affair with the young white woman related to one of the police officers. in alabama until 2000 two the state constitution still prohibited interracial marriage. it was not enforceable after loving versus virginia but we could not get people to take it out of the constitution so these attitudes were very real. after seven months they were getting pressured and you see this pressure into these spaces where they do really unjust things. gun sales increasing, talking about impeaching the sheriff.