Anthony Ray Hinton did not sleep very well the night before Tuesdays presidential election. "Just Mercy" opens in limited release on Christmas Day, and hits theaters everywhere on Jan. 10. Alabama On Sunday, January 10, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Anthony Ray Hinton, who was exonerated on April 3, 2015 after spending nearly 30 years on Alabama 's death row. Hinton has also found success as a motivational speaker and fierce advocate for prison reform, having been invited to dozens of universities and conferences to share his story since his release, according to the Macmillan Speakers Bureau. Since then, Hinton has been able to forgive everyone responsible for his imprisonment, because thats how my mother raised me and because I have a God who forgives. Death Row Exonoree Wednesday, April 12, 2023 8pm. Copyright 2022 GOD TV, Simco Media LLC. Among their efforts for criminal justice reform, the non-profit provides legal aid to those whove been imprisoned unjustly. 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. . Mar 27, 2019 . In Alabama, he writes, judges are elected based on how many people they send to death row, not on how many people they let off., Hintons lawyer provides this ghastly statistic: With 34 executions and seven exonerations in Alabama since 1975, one innocent person has been identified on Alabamas death row for every five executions.. Explore Anthony Ray Hinton Wiki Age, Height, Biography as Wikipedia, Wife, Family relation. 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. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Hinton was a special guest and speaker at 442 Orange St. on Tuesday evening for an event honoring the innocent on death row hosted by Jewish society Shabtai. Fourteen months later, the district attorney in Alabama finally abandoned the case, and Hinton went free. [emailprotected]. Twelve years after the new ballistics tests were ignored by an appeals court in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court finally overturned Hintons conviction and granted him a new trial, at which point a new judge promptly dismissed the charges, according to a release from the Equal Justice Initiative. The lecture began with Hinton recounting the day of his arrest in extreme detail. Anthony Ray Hinton's wrongful conviction and time on death row is featured in the upcoming drama, Just Mercy. The film, starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx, follows attorney. They had every intention of executing me for something I didn't do. At the time, Hinton worked at a supermarket warehouse and lived with his mother, Buhlar Hinton, at her home in rural Alabama, about half an hour north of Birmingham. What was the turning point in prison for Hinton? SUPPORTED BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. I hated those men that did this to me.. 2. Mr. Hinton wrote: Because the so called Fair Justice Actnow pending before the state legislatureputs time restrictions on how long death row prisoners have to prove their innocence or a wrongful conviction, this legislation increases the risk of executing innocent people and makes our system even less fair. Despite pleas by Mr. Hintons lawyers, who cited conclusions by newly enlisted specialists, the state refused for years to reconsider the evidence. 3. Mr. Hintons release from the Jefferson County jail, where he was being held awaiting a new trial that was ordered last year, came close to three decades after a court-appointed lawyer mounted such a feeble defense that the United States Supreme Court ruled it was constitutionally deficient.. Hinton was assigned an incompetent lawyer who was paid $1,000 by the state and then proceeded to hire an incompetent ballistics expert who guaranteed his conviction on fake evidence. Police seized an old revolver belonging to Mr. Hintons mother, and state firearm examiners said that was the gun used in all three crimes. He said, Number three, youre gonna have a white prosecutor. Watch a trailer. He-he-he's going to be executed, says Lester. Hinton was exonerated in 2015, when he was 59 years old, according to NBC News. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years . In the interview, Hinton described how issues of race permeated his case. All the while, Mr. Hinton remained at a prison in south Alabama, awaiting his execution. The only evidence linking Hinton to the. Following his release, Hinton famously remarked, The sun do shine., Thirty years ago, the prosecution seemed deemed to take my life from me, he continued, according to an NPR report. See Innocence and Race. The arresting officer told him chilling words he would never forget when authorities arrested him. The only thing reportedly linking Hinton to the crime was the word of a fast food worker who picked Hinton out of a line-up, leading to his arrest. 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. Cases like Anthony Ray Hintons give the public pause about the death penalty, said Robert Dunham, the centers executive director. The cop was right. He was convicted because hes poor, Mr. Stevenson said. This has everything to do with the way we treat those who are vulnerable in our criminal justice system.. For your mom not to be here the day that you are released, to run into her arms and say, Im home, Mom isI try my best to be the son that she brought me up to be, says Ray. I say it because they took 30 years from me.. You want to know why?, Number one, youre black. Firearms experts convened by an Equal Justice Initiative attorney testified in 2002 that the revolver was not the weapon used in the murders of the two fast-food managers. [3], In February 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated the state court conviction in a unanimous per curiam decision. In 1985, two Birmingham area fast-food restaurants were robbed and the managers, John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason, were fatally shot. Discuss as an entire class. This lesson uses a video segment from PBS NewsHours Searching for Justice series. 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. 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 And Anthony made a decision to accept the reality and still allow God to use him while in prison. 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. It was there on a panel discussion, Reforming Criminal Justice in America . His book is a harrowing masterpiece. Founded by a lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, it had a track record of overturning unjust convictions and in winning a. And you know why? I said, No. He said, You got a white man. Anthony Ray Hinton was a man wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit back in the year 1985 and what happened was that two fast food restaurants in Birmingham Alabama were robbed and both Mangers were shot dead named Thomas Vason and John Davidson and on a later date of July 25th on the same year another restaurant was robbed in Bessemer And Henry said, Well, you know, Ray, Ive been reading the Bible. Error: There was an internal error submitting your form. This was contested by another expert,a civil engineer with visual impairments hired by Hintons public defender. Birmingham, Alabama, 1985. [4] Hinton's book received extremely positive reviews. 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. He has one message for everyone who will listen: Our system is broken, and its time to put a stop to the death penalty. He spent 30 years in prison until, with the help of. 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. (334) 269-1803 Only by the grace of God, says Ray. YouTube | 700 Club Interactive "There's five things they're going to convict you to," the officer told him. Rays mother, whod visited him almost every week since his incarceration, died in 2002. Anthony, or Ray, still remembers the arresting officers chilling words There are five things that gonna convict you. After 30 years in custody for crimes he did not commit, Mr. Hintons release is bittersweet. Wrongly convicted, he was on death row for decades. 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. Anthony hated the men who did it to him. Mr. Hinton, during an interview in which he sometimes cried and buried his head in his hands, lashed out at the officials whose decisions he said had kept him wrongly imprisoned. Number four, youre gonna have a white judge. Ray had a message, and he taught that message to his neighbor Henry, though they only had one thing in common. Im Christel Berns. "[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. Instead, he retained a visually-impaired civil engineer with no expertise in firearms identification who admitted he could not operate the machinery necessary to examine the evidence. Number two, a white man gonna say you shot him. After a few years, the club grew as the news spread quickly in the prison that reading was a good escape. Ray would spend his time fighting not only a legal system that would block every one of his appeals, but the bitterness in his heart. The refusal of state prosecutors to re-examine this case despite persuasive and reliable evidence of innocence is disappointing and troubling.. If you have an immediate prayer need, please call our 24-hour prayer line at 800-700-7000. 24, 2019, 2:11 p.m. Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row, was freed this morning after prosecutors told a judge they won't re-try him for the 1985 . When Hinton was done eating, about half past six, he drove to the polling location where he would cast his first vote in a presidential election since he was released from Alabamas death row. No fingerprints or eyewitness testimony were introduced. Hinton wasnt eligible to vote in the 2016 presidential election. They just didn't take me from my family and friends. [4], Additionally, Hintons boss testified that Hinton was working at the time of the incident, and that he was cleaning the supermarket; despite this, the jury still convicted him. They began, he said, with his arrest in one shooting that occurred while witnesses said he was at work miles away. 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. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. State prosecutors never questioned the new findings but nonetheless refused to re-examine the case or concede error. Anthony Hinton (left) with attorney Bryan Stevenson following a hearing at which EJI argued all charges against Mr. Hinton must be dismissed immediately. EJIs probe into Rays trial was disturbing; among their findings: witnesses had been manipulated, Rays defense counsel was inept, and the surviving victims initial description of the assailant bore little resemblance to Ray. [5], While on death row, Hinton spent much of his time reading. Hinton declined to sign it. But as a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. Ray Hinton's story is astounding on so many levels. The 29-year-old found himself helpless and questioned God what he did so wrong for it to happen to him. Hinton is the 152nd person since 1973 to be exonerated from death row in the United States, and the sixth in the state of Alabama. [4], Hinton's initial appeals continued to be handled by his public defender, Sheldon C. Perhacs, who lost each of Hintons cases. And to show him what real love felt like and real love had no color. But it would all fall on deaf ears, including his court-appointed lawyer. Please check your information and try again or call us at 1-800-759-0700. Then Anthony spent the first three years in the prison full of bitterness in his heart. 07.31.17. We conclude that they did not and hold that Hinton's trial attorney rendered constitutionally deficient performance. Prosecutors dropped the case against Anthony Ray Hinton, 58, when new . In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. There was no evidence at all to tie Hinton to two of the three murders he was accused of, and he was locked in a supermarket warehouse cleaning floors when a restaurant manager 15 miles away was abducted, robbed and shot. When Hinton told the arresting detective that he had the wrong man, the detective told him that he didn't care whether he did it or not. 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. Hintonstarted a book club while he was incarcerated, and went on to write a memoir about his experience, called, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row. Since its publication in 2018, the book has been widely praised, with Oprah Winfrey selecting it for her official book club last June and applauding Hinton in a string of interviews, according to CBS This Morning. He has also guest lectured at multiple universities and travels the country giving professional development on comics as engaging literature. Despite Rays ironclad alibi for at least one of the robberies, and the lack of solid evidence, prosecutors pushed for a conviction. He left Notre Dame Law students with a challenge to serve justice. Using television and the Internet, CBN is proclaiming the Good News in 149 countries and territories, with programs and content in 67 languages. Anthony Ray Hinton attends "True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight For Equality" New York Screening at SVA Theater on June 24, 2019. Because he was convicted of something, he didnt even do. Join Washington Post senior critic-at-large Robin . According to Hinton, the officer who carried out his arrest said that he "didn't care whether I did it or not," guaranteeing he would be convicted. Mr. Hinton, 58, argued for decades that Alabama officials including the judge who oversaw his trial and is now retired had made a series of compounding mistakes after three shootings in 1985 that left two men dead and another wounded. 1. "I woke up like I do every morning I knew that my mother was cooking," Hinton recounted. And I say that not with malice in my heart. Id., at 687-688, 694. I finally looked at you as a human being.. Former death row inmate Anthony Ray Hinton, who was exonerated in 2015 after spending nearly 30 years behind bars in Alabama, says he has forgiven the state for its decades-long injustice.