Deeply Rooted Oklahoma Case Spotlight: Robert Lee Miller, Jr.

Robert Lee Miller, Jr.

Robert Lee Miller, Jr. was wrongfully convicted and held on death row for three years after DNA evidence proved he was innocent. Bob Macy and Joyce Gilchrist both played a role in his wrongful capital conviction.[1] Miller was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 for the murders and rapes of two elderly women.[2] Gilchrist reported that semen collected from the scene pointed to someone with type-A blood, and hairs found at the scene were said to have “negroid characteristics.”[3] Miller was one of 173 Black men interrogated about the case and one of 23 to give a blood sample. Miller’s blood was type-A.[4]

During his interrogation, Miller said he was hallucinating and was troubled by spirits and demons. The officers interrogated Miller for twelve hours, feeding him information about the crime. Miller eventually “confessed” to the murders, though his description of events was inconsistent with the actual facts of the case. At trial, Macy used this false confession, arguing to the jury: “He knew detail after detail. Details only the killer would know.” Macy also relied heavily on Gilchrist’s forensic testimony about blood types and “negroid” hairs. However, Gilchrist tested other blood samples and saliva samples from the crime scene and found different blood markers that were inconsistent with Miller’s sample. Gilchrist said these inconsistencies may have occurred because the sample from the crime scene could have been mixed with the victim’s blood.[5]

A secondary review of the hairs prompted other forensic scientists to describe Gilchrist’s testimony as “essentially meaningless” and “completely unjustified.”[6] Gilchrist’s forensic examination also eliminated a man named Ronald Lott as a potential suspect at the time. However, DNA testing conducted in 1995 conclusively showed that the semen at the crime scene belonged to Lott and not Miller.[7]

Despite the DNA evidence proving that Miller was not the murderer, Macy fought to keep Miller on death row for another three years, baselessly claiming he was an accomplice to the murder.[8] This is part of a larger issue with race and the capital punishment system – Black death-row exonerees spend on average over four years longer waiting to be exonerated than white exonerees, in part due to higher rates of official misconduct and perjured testimony in cases involving Black exonerees.[9] Miller was finally released and exonerated in 1998 after ten years of wrongful incarceration.[10]

[1] Matt McWilliams, Cowboy Bob and Black Magic, Wagner & Lynch Blog (Oct. 6, 2016).

[2] Robert Miller, The Innocence Project (last visited Sept. 29, 2022).

[3] Matt McWilliams, Cowboy Bob and Black Magic, Wagner & Lynch Blog (Oct. 6, 2016).

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Robert Miller, The Innocence Project (last visited Sept. 29, 2022).

[7] Matt McWilliams, Cowboy Bob and Black Magic, Wagner & Lynch Blog (Oct. 6, 2016).

[8] Id.

[9] Death Penalty Information Center, DPIC Special Report: The Innocence Epidemic 4 (Feb. 18, 2021).

[10] Robert Miller, The Innocence Project (last visited Sept. 29, 2022).