Zell Miller

Early life and military career Miller was born in the small mountain town of Young Harris, Georgia. His father, Stephen Grady Miller (1891–1932), was a teacher who died of cerebral meningitis He had a sister, Jane, who was six years older than he. and later attended Emory University. Upon his release, Miller enlisted in the Marines. During his three years in the United States Marine Corps, Miller attained the rank of sergeant. He often referred to the value of his experience in the Marine Corps in his writing and stump speeches. In his book on the subject, entitled Corps Values: Everything You Need to Know I Learned in the Marines, he wrote:

Gov. Zell Miller with President Bill Clinton at The Varsity in Atlanta, January 15, 1996

Twelve years later, Miller would give the keynote address at the opposing party's convention, also held at New York's Madison Square Garden, in 2004.

As governor, Miller was perhaps best known for his advocacy of a law passed in Georgia known as "two strikes and you're out", as any person convicted for the second time of any included offense would automatically be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The law derives its name from and stands in contrast to the three strikes law, and is also known as the Seven-deadly-sins law. The law was passed in April 1994, although it had been advocated by Miller for many years previously. It was approved by voters on November 8, 1994, and was signed into law by then Governor Zell Miller on December 15, 1994, and went into effect on January 1, 1995. The law is codified and found under Title 17, Chapter 10, Section 7 (OCGA Section 17-10-7) of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. The law states that those convicted of second-degree murder, armed robbery, or kidnapping (of a person 14 years of age or older) must serve a minimum term of 10 years in prison, and those convicted of rape, kidnapping of a minor under 14 years old, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated sodomy or aggravated child molestation must serve a minimum term of not less than 25 years in prison. First-degree murder is punishable by death, life without parole, or life in prison with no parole until the offender serves at least 30 years in prison. These crimes are known in Georgia as the "seven deadly sins".

As governor, Miller was a staunch promoter of public education. He helped found the HOPE Scholarship, which paid for the college tuition of Georgia students who both established a GPA of 3.0 in high school and maintained the same while in college, and who were from families earning less than $66,000 per year. The HOPE Scholarships were funded by revenue collected from the state lottery. In December 1995, his office announced a proposal for $1 billion more in spending on education. HOPE won praise from national Democratic leaders. The HOPE Scholarship program still to this day provides Georgia students with an opportunity to attend a public college or university, who otherwise may have no opportunity to do so.

Upon leaving the governor's office in January 1999, Miller accepted teaching positions at Young Harris College, Emory University, and the University of Georgia. He was a visiting professor at all three institutions when he was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2000. ) and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. However, Miller remained a Democrat, saying, "I'll be a Democrat 'til the day I die." Miller campaigned for fellow Georgia Democrat Max Cleland in his 2002 re-election campaign against Republican Congressman Saxby Chambliss, despite their ideological differences.

Miller argued in his book A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat (authored and published in 2003) that the Democratic Party lost its majority because it did not stand for the same ideals that it did in the era of John F. Kennedy. He argued that the Democratic Party, as it now stood, was a far left-wing party that was out of touch with the America of today and that the Republican Party now embraced the conservative Democratic ideals that he had held for so long. The book spent nine weeks in the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover non-fiction, peaking at number four.

In 2003, Miller announced that he would not seek re-election after completing his term in the Senate. He also announced that he would support President George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election rather than any of the nine candidates then competing for his own party's nomination. Shortly after announcing his retirement, Miller began to call for the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed for the direct election of U.S. Senators, rather than having U.S. Senators be elected by state legislatures. During his four years in the Senate, Zell Miller received a cumulative rating of 70% from the American Conservative Union, including a rating of 96% in 2004.

2004 election support for Republicans In his keynote speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention, delivered on September 1, 2004, Miller criticized the state of the Democratic Party. He said, "No pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two senators from Massachusetts – Ted Kennedy and John Kerry." He also criticized John Kerry's Senate voting record, claiming that Kerry's votes against bills for defense and weapon systems indicated support for weakening U.S. military strength.

The speech was well received by the convention attendees, especially the Georgia delegates. Conservative commentator Michael Barone compared the speech to the views and ideology of Andrew Jackson.

Miller's combative reaction to post-speech media interviews received almost as much attention as the speech itself. First, in an interview with CNN, Miller had a dispute with Judy Woodruff, Wolf Blitzer, and Jeff Greenfield when they questioned him on his speech, particularly on whether he had misinterpreted the context and full content of Kerry's votes, and the fact that Dick Cheney, as Defense Secretary, had opposed some of the same programs he attacked Kerry for voting against.

Shortly thereafter, Miller appeared in an interview with Chris Matthews on the MSNBC show Hardball. After Miller expressed irritation at Matthews' line of questioning, Matthews pressed Miller with the question, "Do you believe now – do you believe, Senator, truthfully, that John Kerry wants to defend the country with spitballs?" Miller angrily told Matthews, "That was a metaphor, wasn't it? Do you know what a metaphor is? This is your program, and I'm a guest on your program, so I want to try to be as nice as I possibly can to you. I wish I was over there where I could get a little closer up into your face...I knew you was gonna be coming with all of that stuff...I think we ought to cancel this interview...get out of my face", and declared, "I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel." Miller later said about the interview, "That was terrible. I embarrassed myself. I'd rather it had not happened."

After Bush won the election of 2004, Miller referred to the Republican victories in that election (including a sweep of five open Senate seats in the South) as a sign that Democrats did not relate to most Americans. Calling for Democrats to change their message, he authored a column, which appeared in The Washington Times on November 4, 2004, in which he wrote:

Post-2004 endorsements In 2008, after Barack Obama was elected president and Democrats increased their majorities in the House and Senate, Miller endorsed Republican Saxby Chambliss in the Senate run-off against Democrat Jim Martin and criticized Obama over "spreading the wealth."

In 2012, Miller served as the national co-chair to the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. The same year, Miller endorsed Doug Collins, the Republican candidate in the 9th District of Georgia congressional race. However, he also endorsed incumbent Republican governor Nathan Deal for reelection.

Life after politics In August 2005, President Bush appointed Miller to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

In 2005, Miller was elected to the board of directors of the National Rifle Association of America.

Miller was a speaker at "Justice Sunday II", an event organized by conservative Christian evangelicals to combat alleged liberal bias in the federal judiciary of the United States. The event was held in Nashville, Tennessee on August 14, 2005, and featured Tony Perkins and James Dobson. Miller criticized the United States Supreme Court, saying that it had "removed prayer from our public schools ... legalized the barbaric killing of unborn babies and it is ready to discard like an outdated hula hoop the universal institution of marriage between a man and a woman."

The Student Learning Center (SLC) at the University of Georgia was renamed to the Zell B. Miller Learning Center (Miller Learning Center or MLC for short) in October 2008.

Miller's health took a downward turn in the late 2000s when he developed Parkinson's disease and other health concerns, which ended in various complications. In 2016, Miller's grandson, Bryan Miller, started the Miller Institute Foundation as a way to preserve and promote his grandfather's legacy. By October 2017, Miller had officially retired from public life and was undergoing treatment for Parkinson's.

Death Miller died on March 23, 2018, at his home in Young Harris, Georgia, from complications of Parkinson's disease. His state funeral was held in Atlanta on March 28 with incumbent governor Nathan Deal, U.S. secretary of agriculture Sonny Perdue, U.S. senator Johnny Isakson, former senator Max Cleland, former lieutenant governor Pierre Howard and three former U.S. presidents—Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush—in attendance.

Awards Miller received the Young Harris Medallion in 1978 from Young Harris College. In 1998, he received an honorary degree in Doctor of Laws from Oglethorpe University.

Published works

(foreword by Miller)

(foreword by Miller)

(foreword by Miller)