Wanda Jones Miller
Wanda Jones Miller (born c. 1960) is a Victim Service Officer for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
On August 21, 1983, Jones was abducted from the parking lot of the Baby Doe's Matchless Mine restaurant on Red Mountain during a friend's birthday party. At around 12:30 AM she walked out to the parking lot to meet her husband. As she reached the end of the walkway, she was grabbed and pushed into a black Oldsmobile. Over the next seven hours she was repeatedly raped in the car and at a house in Pinson by as many as seven men. Her jewelry was also stolen.
Three of the attackers, Stanley Earl Wilson and brothers Kenneth and Michael Thornton, were convicted of rape, sodomy and kidnapping. Wilson, considered to have been the ringleader, was convicted on April 27, 1984 and sentenced to a total of 218 years in prison. The conviction was overturned because prosecutors unfairly kept African Americans off the jury.
Before the retrial, the defendants agreed to plead guilty. Wilson, considered the ringleader, received a life sentence while the Thornton brothers were sentenced to 40 years each. Jones subsequently moved to Antigua for several years, but later returned to Alabama and opened the Trussville Antique Mall on North Chalkville Road. She sold the business before going to work for the sheriff's department.
In 2000 Jones' attackers were granted parole, but the decision was overturned after then-Governor Don Seigelman protested and a judge voided the result of the hearing because Jones had not been properly notified of a pre-hearing screening.
In 2004 another parole hearing was attended by dozens of law enforcement officials and victim's rights advocates. They testified that the convicted men had never shown remorse nor identified the other participants. Family members of the Thornton brothers argued that Jones, Wilson and the Thornton brothers had all been drinking and using drugs and that she agreed to go with them to their house to continue partying and it was only later that the party got "out of hand." Jones firmly denies that claim. They also produced a transcript of the plea deal in which the Jefferson County District Attorney agreed not to protest parole. David Barber, who represented that office at the parole hearing, said that he was not present at the plea deal and was not aware of any such agreement.
In 2008 Jones married Bill Miller. Wilson died in prison in 2013. The Thornton brothers were granted parole in December 2015, with support from Miller and their older brother, Thomas.
References
- Kennedy, Joey (November 10, 2004) "Ordeal for Wanda Jones never ends." The Birmingham News
- Crowder, Carla (November 10, 2004) "Parole again denied in 'Baby Doe's' rape." The Birmingham News
- Kennedy, Joey (August 8, 2010) "Wanda Jones Miller finds herself in very familiar territory." The Birmingham News
- Robinson, Carol (December 16, 2015) "With victim's support, notorious Alabama gang rapists granted parole after 31 years behind bars." The Birmingham News