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Anthony Ray Hinton is a black man from Alabama who spent 30 years of his life on death row after being convicted of a crime that he did not commit.
Two restaurant employees were killed during a series of robberies in Alabama throughout 1985. A survivor of the third robbery incorrectly identified Hinton as the shooter when given a lineup of photos.
In July of 1985, two detectives from the Birmingham Police Department arrived at Hinton's mother's home where he was arrested at only 29 years old. Hinton obeyed orders from the detectives and peacefully went to the police station in order to clear his name.
He explained that as a Black man, it was important to let police officers know that they had his respect if he wanted to see another day.
"Every Black parent had that talk with their children," said Hinton.
Before any evidence had even been collected, the detective told Hinton that he was sure that he would be convicted because it was his word against that of a White man. He also said that Hinton would have a White district attorney, a White judge and a White jury. All of those things combined would undoubtedly lead to a guilty verdict.
The police asked Hinton if he or his mother owned a gun. Hinton told the police about a pistol that his mother kept at the house which was seized and later incorrectly found to be the murder weapon. He said that he told the truth about the gun because he had not done anything wrong, so he had no reason to be anything other than honest.
Hinton then found out that he was going to be tried for two counts of first-degree capital murder even though he had evidence of being at work 15 miles away from where the crime took place.
It soon became clear to Hinton that he was not going to have a fair trial.
"I did not go to law school to do pro bono work," said his defense attorney. After explaining that he was in fact innocent and had not done anything wrong, the attorney then said, "All of y'all blacks always say you didn't do something."
The only physical evidence produced at trial were a series of ballistics tests preformed by a partially blind civil engineer who admittedly did not have any experience with firearms and could not operate the pistol to properly examine it for evidence. Hinton's attorney did not hire a firearms expert to challenge the false evidence found by the state, and Hinton was sentenced to death.
Hinton was held at Holman Correction Facility in southern Alabama. He admits to spending his first three years of imprisonment in complete silence because he was too angry to speak. He lived so close to the execution chamber that he could smell burning flesh as fellow prisoners were electrocuted down the hall.
Hinton's mother died while he was in prison. He was unable to attend the funeral or tell her a proper goodbye. He explained that if he had not been able to train his brain to escape and find solace in destinations created by his imagination, he would have probably hung himself as three other men did in his time spent in prison.
An attorney from the Equal Justice Initiative in Boston came to speak with him. He said that he would attempt to get Hinton's sentence lowered to life without parole, meaning that he would not be executed but still spend the remaining years of his life in prison. However, Hinton fired the attorney and said that he would rather die fighting for the truth than lie and say that he committed a crime in which he had no involvement. He said not only did he deserve the truth, but the families of the victims did as well.
Hinton later saw a different attorney from the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson on television fighting for justice for black men. He wrote him a letter and asked him to read his transcript and if he saw even the slightest possibility of guilt, to not bother with a response. However, eight months later he came to Alabama to speak with Hinton and help him with his case.
Hinton asked Stevenson to hire a ballistics expert to tell the truth about what the evidence showed about the bullets found at the crime scene. After Stevenson said that he already planned to do that, Hinton further explained that he needed the ballistics expert to be a white man from the south because that was the only way that a white judge and jury would consider their defense.
Stevenson found two men from Texas and one man from Virginia. These experts had only ever helped to prosecute black men. They had never helped to exonerate one. Hinton still decided that these were the men he wanted to speak on his behalf, and only asked that they tell the truth about the evidence in court.
Hinton sat in prison for 16 more years because the courts refused to reexamine the bullets. In 2014, it was ruled that Hinton's original defense attorney was "constitutionally deficient" and the case would be retried.
On April 1, 2015, the three experts said that the bullets found at the scene of the crime did not match the gun belonging to Hinton's mother. All nine U.S. Supreme Court judges ruled in his favor. Anthony Ray Hinton was released from prison on April 3, 2015. His lifelong friend asked him what he wanted to do first. He said that he wanted to see where his mother was buried.
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| ABC News |
"I wanted the world to know that my mother didn't bring into this world a child that was capable of taking another human being's life," said Hinton.
After having spent more than half of his life in prison, Hinton was released into an entirely new world. On his first day as a free man, he was frightened by his friend's talking GPS. He did not know how credit cards were used. He missed out on his thirties, forties and most of his fifties where some of one's best life memories are made.
Although he legally gained freedom in 2015, Hinton is still mentally imprisoned. He bought himself a California king bed that he is unable to stretch out in after having spent 30 years sleeping in the fetal position on his prison bunk. He wakes up at 2:45 every morning because that is when the men on death row were fed breakfast.
"I don't think I'll ever be free simply because I'm constantly worrying and wondering when they're coming," said Hinton. "Everyday, someone can verify where I am, just in case they come back and try to pin it on me again."
It is obvious that there is nothing that can be said or done to make up for the time that was spent in prison. However, Hinton said that he never received an apology from anyone in Alabama who played a part in seeking the death of an innocent man.
"Everybody that played a part in sending me to death row: You will answer to God," Hinton told reporters after he was released from prison.
Hinton was eligible for approximately $1.5 million for his time spent wrongfully incarcerated. However, he still has not received any form of compensation. Today he makes ends meet my speaking to college classes about what he endured, and will reapply for compensation in January. He also wrote a book titled, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row that will be released March 27, 2018.
Anthony Ray Hinton was accused because he was black. He was denied a fair trial because he was black. He was convicted because he was black. He spent 30 years of his life in prison because he was black. Hinton ended the question and answer session of his story with students of Ohio University by encouraging them to get involved in policy making and to vote for people in favor of prison reform.
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