The book club began with a handful of death row prisoners meeting in the jails law library, and for a few years the numbers grew as word spread that reading was as good an escape as any of them could expect. "The sheriff of Jefferson County, Alabama, is directed to deliver the defendant, the said Anthony Ray Hinton, into the custody of the director of the department of corrections and. With hope of freedom vanishing, he escaped the horror of confinement with daily flights of fancy. On your last trip to Poland, what was your favorite thing there? 10-year-old NinaWakuska shouted to President Joe Biden as he headed into the White House.The president stopped, peeked inside, then gestured to Nina. I met Hinton, 61, at the rural Alabama home where he lived with his mother, Buhlar, when he was arrested in 1985. But Hinton never wavered that the truth would prevail one day. (334) 269-1803 Just as in Hinton's case, the two were tried before Jefferson County Circuit Judge James Garrett, who has since retired, by then Assistant District Attorney Bob McGregor, who has since died. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations. Hinton regarded the ruling as political and racial. or call us at 1-617-450-2300. When the judge delivered his sentence I lost my eyesight for a split second, he remembers. Are corporations going liberal? Struggling with distance learning? Hinton finally left death row and not in a body bag. All the while, Hinton awaited his own appointment with Yellow Mama, the generator that powered the electric chair, as one attempt after another to have the overwhelming evidence of his innocence heard got nowhere. Select stories from the Monitor that empower and uplift. I may not have had any money, but I had enough education to understand exactly how justice was working in this trial and exactly how it was going to turn out. Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 67 years old? Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. Eventually, with all avenues for justice within the Alabama system shut off, the path was open for Stevenson to take Hintons case to the US Supreme Court. I used my imagination to get away, he explains. The First-Year Experience (FYE) program brought the presentation, titled "Stories of Justice and Redemption: The Impact of the Equal Justice Initiative," to St. Bonaventure. Science Monitor has expired. Anthony Hinton was arrested after the manager identified him from a photo lineup, even though he was working in a locked warehouse fifteen miles away at the time of the crime. On July 25, 1985, a restaurant in Bessemer was robbed and the manager was shot but not seriously wounded. A photo made available by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Anthony Ray Hinton. Somehow, he's not enraged", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anthony_Ray_Hinton&oldid=1150580840, Overturned convictions in the United States, American people wrongfully convicted of murder, 21st-century American non-fiction writers, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking reliable references from June 2022, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from June 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 18 April 2023, at 23:14. In 1999, two ballistics experts from Texas and a third from Virginia proved Hintons innocence; however, the U.S. Supreme Court didnt rule his case be retried until 2014. Henry Hays was cheated all his life. He was cheated by his father who taught him to hate. And sometimes his stomach knots with dread as he remembers the stench of burning flesh when a fellow prisoner got fried in the electric chair. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1725 titles we cover. Morrison said Hinton was convicted in Jefferson County, where McGregor was promoted after he had been found in Mobile to have removed every black juror from his jury. Stay informed about the latest scientific discoveries & breakthroughs. I feel like Im a better leader after reading your book. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. (modern). One investigating detective, Doug Acker, had been tried three years earlier for beating suspects and torturing them with cattle prods to coerce confessions. Brown agreed the presentation was successful. 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. The engineer said that there wasnt any connection between the weapon and the shooting. State-appointed appeal lawyers tried and failed to overturn his conviction. While the state attorney general's office hasn't yet responded to Musgrove's arguments in court and declined comment this week, it has defended the conviction for nearly 30 years and once got the Alabama Supreme Court to reverse a lower state appellate court that overturned the case. if he dies in the electric chair, he is going to heaven; he looks at, the $350 for the test, but he hopes this will vindicate him. Photos by Daniel Roth, City of Birmingham, WhenAnthony Ray Hintonwalked out of an Alabama lockup after spending nearly 30 years on Death Row for a crime he did not commit, a guard told him: Youll be back.. One visiting day he called Hinton and another black prisoner over to meet his father, introducing them as his friends. Besides his books, Hinton sought other ways of mental escape. A unanimous Supreme Court victory is Professor Bryan Stevenson's latest milestone in his 15-year effort to vindicate a man on death row. The only evidence linking Hinton to the killings were bullets that state experts at the time said had markings that matched a .38-caliber revolver that belonged to Hinton's mother, and the defense said Hinton was working at a locked warehouse 15 miles away at the time of the slayings. Were run by a church, but were not only for church members and were not about converting people. His poorly paid, inept defence attorney Sheldon Parhacs then hired a one-eyed ballistics expert and McGregor lacerated his testimony. The refusal of state prosecutors to re-examine this case despite persuasive and reliable evidence of innocence is disappointing and troubling.. The prosector, Bob McGregor, was twice found by courts to have illegally discriminated against African Americans by excluding them from juries. But I believed in the legal system and thought a lawyer would prove my innocence. What followed was a three-decade-long miscarriage of justice driven not by one bad cop or a single piece of flawed evidence but a system that conspired against justice. In 1985, Birmingham, Alabama, courts convicted Hinton of murdering two restaurant managers, said the exonerated 30-year inmate. At an appeal hearing, prosecutors dropped their original tactic of mocking the defence ballistics expert and now, playing for time, built him up as a credible witness whose testimony had been rejected by the jury. The tests concluded the bullets in one of the three shootings definitively came from a different gun and the bullets in the others could not be matched. Hinton had no money and was stuck with Perhacs, who proved as incompetent in fighting appeals as he had at the original trial, losing in one court after another. Black men are imprisoned just for being black men. And if thats not enough, Hinton is a sought-after public speaker, delivering messages of faith, forgiveness and a flawed criminal justice system. The prosecutorwho had a documented history of racial bias and said he could tell Mr. Hinton was guilty and evil solely from his appearancetold the court that the States experts asserted match between Mrs. Hintons gun and the bullets from all three crimes was the only evidence linking Mr. Hinton to the Davidson and Vason murders. The only thing they couldnt do was throw a rope and hang me like they once did, but they took my freedom through corrupted criminal procedure.. $140 per post at $7/CPM. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton is published by Rider Books at 16.99, or 14.44 at guardianbookshop.com, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. After 10 years on death row a group fighting racial injustice and inequality, took up the case. "He was wrongly convicted.". In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. 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. He organized a book club that was allowed to meet in the prison's law library. Death row is another world, a world that is tormented, he says. Now he is stocky with a greying beard to match his hair. I had lost my father mother three of my sisters, he says. 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 Botched ballistics evidence and a questionable eyewitness identification may help him get a new trial. And every day I woke up with a death sentence over my head and every night I laid down with a death sentence over my head. $200 per post at $10/CPM. After a few years, the club grew as the news spread quickly in the prison that reading was a good escape. I had nowhere to live, no clothes, no money. When Mr. Hinton shared his story, the room was silent. Another detective on the case, Doug Acker, had been tried three years earlier for torturing black prisoners with electric cattle prods and beatings to obtain confessions, but was acquitted by an all-white jury. Hinton confronted Hays about his racism, but came to realise that he had changed in prison and eventually saw him as a victim poisoned by the hatred of his father, Bennie Hays, a leader of the KKK in Alabama. An update on major political events, candidates, and parties twice a week. State prosecutors never questioned the new findings but nonetheless refused to re-examine the case or concede error. In the case Anthony Ray Hinton v. Alabama, the Court ruled on February 24 that Hinton did not receive effective counsel during his capital trial, declaring the lawyer's performance deficient in violation of the Sixth Amendment. About $2,100 was missing from the safe. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. He is not hesitant, though, as he tells his story with a visceral anger not only at his own tribulations but at the state of Alabama in the 21st century. I dont have a choice but to forgive, because I want to be free, he says. The first was on February 23 at the Mrs. Winner's in Avondale. When he passed, McGregor blocked it from being used in court. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free. I wanted them to have the knowledge I had growing up, he says. He was convicted in connection to two homicides that happened in 1985. [2] During the appeals, EJI introduced evidence from three forensic experts, including one from the FBI, showing that the bullets from the crime scenes did not match Hinton's mother's gun. The Alabama courts would not be able to deny the credibility of the tests so it set about not considering them at all. Exonerated Anthony Ray Hinton walked out of the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham, Alabama, a free man for the first time in 30 years at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, April 3, 2015. A breakthrough came last year when Hinton won a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled his trial attorney was "constitutionally deficient.". In July of 1985, while living with his mother, he was arrested for the suspicion of first-degree robbery, first degree kidnapping and first-degree murder.