In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. For 30 years, Anthony Ray Hinton sat on death row for a crime he didn't commit 30 years of "pure hell," as he described it. I couldnt vote at one time in the state of Alabama, you couldnt marry outside of your race, you had to go to the back to get something to eat. The judge finally dismissed the charges after prosecutors said that scientists at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences tested the evidence and confirmed that the crime bullets cannot be matched to the Hinton weapon. For more than 15 years, EJI attorneys repeatedly asked state officials to re-examine the evidence in this case, but former Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber, and Attorneys General from Troy King to Luther Strange, all failed to do so. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Nearly 30 years after the Alabama authorities relied on analyses of a handgun and bullets to send him to death row, Anthony Ray Hinton was freed on Friday after experts undermined the states case. In 2015, Hintons 30 years of unbroken prayers were answered and the nations highest court ruled unanimously in his favor. No one. But rather than pass reforms to prevent another innocent person from being wrongfully convicted and condemned to death, Mr. Hinton cautioned, Alabama is moving in the opposite direction. No fingerprints or eyewitness testimony were introduced. Mr. Hinton walked out of the Jefferson County Jail a free man. All the while, Mr. Hinton remained at a prison in south Alabama, awaiting his execution. "[14] He completed a memoir entitled The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (2018), and has given readings and talks around the country about the book and his experiences. "Thirty years ago, the . I even asked God, What did I do so bad?. Wrongly jailed for 30 years, Black Alabaman says justice requires voting The only potential evidence that proves Mr. Hinton committed the murders depends upon an absolute, conclusive determination that the bullets recovered from their bodies were in fact fired through the barrel of the firearm taken from the defendants home, prosecutors wrote in their court filing on Wednesday. Having spent 30 years on. Thirty years ago, Mr. Hinton was arrested and charged with two capital murders based solely on the assertion that a revolver taken from his mothers home was the gun used in both murders and in a third uncharged crime. Mar 30, 2016 Updated Mar 31, 2016. One of the longest serving death row prisoners in Alabama history and among the longest serving condemned prisoners to be freed after presenting evidence of innocence, Mr. Hinton becamethe 152nd person exonerated from death row since 1983 when he wasreleased on April 3, 2015. What do you do when you tell a lawyer that youre innocent and he looks at you and says, The problem with that statement. And I say that not with malice in my heart. But the state court of Alabama refused to overturn his convictions or grant a new trial. The sun does shine, he said as he was embraced by family and friends. by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin The Sun Does Shine is a powerful examination of both our flawed justice system and of one man's personal resilience and faith. Prosecutors dropped the case against Anthony Ray Hinton, 58, when new . So Ive got to forgive. He was 29 years old at the time. [12] On April 1, 2015 the Jefferson County district attorneys office moved to drop the case. 2. Published: Apr. Deputies escort Mr. Hinton in the courthouse during his trial. [emailprotected]. 07.31.17. And so it was not until Friday at 9:30 a.m., one day after a Circuit Court judge ordered his release, that Mr. Hinton exited the jail to hugs, tears and wails of Thank you, Lord!, The State of Alabama let me down tremendously, Mr. Hinton said in his first interview after his release. [4], The prosecution's only evidence at the trial was a statement that ballistics tests showed four crime scene bullets matched Hinton's mother's gun, which was discovered at her house during the investigation. They had every intention of executing me for something I didn't do. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Indifferent to these concerns, the Alabama legislature passed the new law this spring,making it more difficult to obtain adequate counsel and imposing more unfair filing requirements. Hinton was sentenced to death and held on the state's death row for 28 years, and was later released in 2015. Alabama inmate Anthony Ray Hinton walked out of prison Friday as a free man after 30 years on death row. Anthony Ray Hinton spent decades in jail for crimes he did not commit. But the book club is short-lived, after the prisoners who are left out of it convince the warden it is unfair to allow only some of them to become readers. Anthony Hinton. The prosecutors who filed the motion to dismiss the case did not respond to messages seeking comment, and, through a spokesman, the Alabama attorney general declined to be interviewed. "[17], On May 19, 2019, Hinton spoke at St. Bonaventure University's commencement exercises and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Human Letters degree. Anthony Ray Hinton, 58, was convicted of murdering two restaurant managers in Birmingham in 1985, but was granted a new . Ray has a strong alibi for one of the incidents, and the supposed murder weapon, Ray's mom's gun, hasn't been fired in years, but the authorities refuse to consider this. When he was arrested the police officer told him that he would have a white judge, a white jury and a white man was going to testify that Mr. Hinton killed a man. -- Anthony Ray Hinton spent more than half his life on death row in southern Alabama. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. 1. I dont think the society nor the men that did this to me realized what they took from me, says Ray. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years . At the same time, Republican lawmakers introduced the Fair Justice Act. As Mr. Hinton wrote in an op-ed, had the Fair Justice Act been in place when he was convicted, I would have been executed despite my innocence. Like other men and women sentenced to death in Alabama, where there is no state-funded office to provide counsel for postconviction proceedings,it took years to find volunteer lawyers willing and able to provide the legal assistance Mr. Hinton needed to prove his innocence. In two or three sentences, compare the two Harriets. Identify - BRAINLY Executions are carried out in the name of the people of Alabama and we should all be concerned if we make oursystem less reliable and the execution of innocent people more likely. Then, another crushing setback. How the case against him unraveled", "Alabama death row inmate freed after 30 years", "Book Marks reviews of The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton, co-written with Lara Love Hardin", "The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin review", "Death row survivor returns to address #Bonas seniors", "Death row survivor Anthony Ray Hinton to keynote Bona's 159th Commencement", "They Couldnt Take My Soul": Anthony Ray Hinton on His Exoneration After 30 Years on Death Row, "How to Survive Death Row: Anthony Ray Hinton served 30 years in prison for murders he didn't commit. Mr. Hinton spent 30 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. Now, at 58, after spending decades behind bars, Hinton is free. It was 1986. Alabama law provides that compensation may be awarded to a wrongfully incarcerated person if the Committee on Compensation for Wrongful Incarceration finds that hemeets the eligibility criteria, but applying for compensation is often a meaningless exercise because the statute requires alegislative enactment toappropriate the necessary funds. That paid for the experts who got it wrong. In 2020, all of the candidates he voted for were Democrats. I was released from death row. The police turned up one day while Hinton, then 29, was mowing his mother's lawn; they. Hinton told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley about a conversation he had with a police lieutenant after having been arrested: I said, You got the wrong guy. And he said, I dont care whether you did it or dont. He said, But you gonna be convicted for it. What were the charges brought against Hinton? "30 Years in Hell": Anthony Ray Hinton delivers powerful lecture Summary Of Anthony Ray Hinton's Trial | ipl.org Life after wrongful conviction - PBS NewsHour Classroom He said, Number three, youre gonna have a white prosecutor. After every level of the Alabama court system had rejected Hintons appeals multiple times, his lawyer decided to take his case directly to the US supreme court. Anthony Ray Hinton. "I want to be a light for people:" Former death row inmate Anthony Ray YOU HAVE 20,000 FOLLOWERS: $100 per post at a $5/CPM. However, the jury disregarded his testimony because of his poor eyesight and inability to use the microscope correctly. What did I do? We conclude that they did not and hold that Hinton's trial attorney rendered constitutionally deficient performance. Anthony Ray Hinton Awarded Honorary Doctorate Degree, Alabama Man Freed After Decades on Death Row, Freed Death Row Inmate: Humor Saved Me from Satan, 122 Commerce Street Montgomery, AL 36104 In 2014, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned his conviction based on his attorneys deficient representation, and Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Laura Petro ordered a new trial. Anthony Ray Hinton, an innocent man, spent 30 years on death row in Alabama because, he says, he was "black and poor." His name finally cleared, he now campaigns for justice -- which he says. What are your thoughts about the death penalty after reading this article? Anthony Ray Hinton is an American activist, writer, and author who was wrongly convicted of the 1985 murders of two fast food restaurant managers in Birmingham, Alabama. We have a system that is compromised by racial bias, and his case proves it., Weve gotten into a culture, he said in a separate interview, where the pressure to convict and to achieve these outcomes is so great that owning up to mistakes is less frequent than youd like to imagine.. State prosecutors never questioned the new findings but nonetheless refused to re-examine the case or concede error. Rays mother, whod visited him almost every week since his incarceration, died in 2002. HINTON v. ALABAMA | Supreme Court | US Law | LII / Legal Information But last year, the Supreme Court said that Mr. Hintons defense had been unacceptable, setting up a new trial and essentially forcing prosecutors to review the evidence for a case in which they acknowledged the forensic studies were paramount.
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