A Black man once sentenced to death for murder fights for freedom after discovering his attorney defended the Ku Klux Klan

Rocky Myers’ Long Fight for Freedom Takes Another Setback in Alabama

Earthguardiansonline.com – Robin “Rocky” Myers has spent more than three decades behind bars, holding onto a simple vision of life beyond an Alabama prison: the ability to move freely, see his family and decide for himself where to go.

“I’ve been locked up in one cell for 31 years. I don’t want to be inside no more. When I get out, I don’t want a house. I don’t want an apartment. I want a car where I can drive everywhere.”

Myers, wearing a khaki prison uniform, made those remarks during a call from the recreation yard at St. Clair Correctional Facility, roughly 30 miles northeast of Birmingham. His wish was direct and deeply personal.

“I want to be free.”

The Black father of four was convicted in 1994 in the killing of his White neighbor, Ludie Mae Tucker. Tucker was stabbed in the heart, but Myers has consistently maintained that he was not responsible for her death. No DNA evidence connected him to the crime scene. The case against him relied on circumstantial evidence and witness accounts that his present lawyers have challenged, including testimony from a witness who later withdrew his statement.

His case also drew attention because a jury made up almost entirely of White jurors recommended life in prison without the possibility of release. The trial judge rejected that recommendation and imposed the death penalty instead.

Clemency Did Not End the Case

For years, Myers remained on Alabama’s death row. In 2025, as his execution neared, Gov. Kay Ivey commuted his punishment from death to life without parole. Ivey, a Republican who supports capital punishment, said uncertainty surrounding Myers’ guilt made it impossible for her to permit the execution.

The decision spared Myers’ life, but it did not resolve the central issue raised by his supporters and attorneys: whether he should remain imprisoned for the rest of his life for a killing he says he did not commit.

Myers’ legal team has pursued a new route to challenge the conviction after learning more about John Edmond Mays, the attorney appointed to represent him at trial. The lawyers now working for Myers contend that Mays’ background raises grave questions about the quality and loyalty of the defense Myers received.

LeAndrew Hood, Myers’ son, summarized the family’s view plainly.

“He had a lawyer that didn’t care about him.”

Attorney’s History Becomes Central to Appeal

Mays had publicly represented members of the Ku Klux Klan in legal disputes during the 1970s and 1980s, a period when Alabama and the wider country continued to confront the consequences of segregation and racial violence.

One of the most consequential cases involved the 1981 murder of Michael Donald, a Black teenager in Mobile. Donald was kidnapped, beaten and killed by Klansmen. His body was left hanging from a tree. The attack was intended as retaliation for the death of a police officer, even though Donald had no connection to that killing, and as an act of intimidation aimed at Black jurors.

In 1987, the United Klans of America was ordered to pay $7 million in the civil case brought by Donald’s family. Mays represented the organization in that case. He described Donald’s killing as a “gross and horrible atrocity” while arguing that the Klan itself should not bear responsibility for the murder.

Robert Shelton, then the United Klans of America’s imperial wizard, told jurors that “White supremacy is a political goal, nothing more.”

Five years later, in 1992, Mays became Myers’ lawyer. Mays declined to comment on the renewed attention surrounding his role in the case.

The history is especially significant because Myers was a Black defendant accused of killing a White woman in Alabama. His current attorneys believe the information about Mays deserves full consideration as courts evaluate whether Myers received meaningful legal representation at a trial that placed his life at risk.

Petition Rejected, Appeal Continues

Myers’ latest request to overturn his conviction faced a major setback in late August. On August 24, the Morgan County District Attorney filed a response opposing the petition. Four days later, on August 28, Morgan County Circuit Court Judge Charles Elliott denied the request.

His attorneys appealed that ruling to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on October 8. There is no clear timetable for a decision.

The denial left Myers confronting the possibility that clemency may be the only relief he receives. In a letter written after learning that his petition had again been rejected, he acknowledged the weight of that prospect.

“I know I might live in prison until I die here. But I hope and pray for something more.”

For Myers and his family, the case now stands at a difficult crossroads. The death sentence is gone, but the life-without-parole sentence remains. The appeal will determine whether the courts revisit a conviction shaped by disputed testimony, the absence of DNA evidence and fresh scrutiny of the lawyer who defended him.

For a man who has spent 31 years in a cell, the legal arguments are inseparable from the ordinary future he continues to imagine: time with loved ones, open roads and the freedom to leave prison behind.