Anthony Ray Hinton

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Anthony Ray Hinton

Hinton in 2019

Born June 1, 1956 (age 65)

Alabama, U.S.

Nationality American

Occupation Author

Activist

Known for Prison reform activism

Spouse(s) Halimah Abdullah

Anthony Ray Hinton (born June 1, 1956) is an American activist, writer, and author
who was wrongly convicted of the 1985 murders of two fast food restaurant
managers in Birmingham, Alabama.[1] Hinton was sentenced to death and held on the
state's death row for 28 years, and was later released in 2015. [1][2][3][4][5]
In 2015 the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously overturned his
conviction on appeal, after which the state dropped all charges against him. The
court was unable to affirm the forensic evidence of a gun, which was the only
evidence in the first trial.[3] After being released, Hinton wrote and published a
memoir The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (2018).
[3]
 Hinton was portrayed by O'Shea Jackson Jr. in the 2019 film Just Mercy.
 Contents

 1Background
o 1.1Incidents
 2Arrest, prosecution and conviction
 3Death row
o 3.1Appeals
 4Exoneration, release and aftermath
 5See also
 6References
 7External links

Background[edit]
Incidents[edit]
On February 25, 1985, and July 2, 1985, two fast food managers, John Davidson
and Thomas Wayne Vason, were killed in separate incidents during armed robberies
at their fast food restaurants in Birmingham.[2] A survivor of a third restaurant robbery
picked a photo of Anthony Ray Hinton, then age 29, from a lineup, and the police
investigated him. 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.[3]

Arrest, prosecution and conviction[edit]

After Hinton's arrest, his public defense attorney did not provide adequate counsel.
He said to Hinton, "All of y'all blacks always say you didn’t do something." and "Y'all
blacks always sticking up for each other." The credibility of his ballistics expert - the
only one the attorney thought he could hire with the funds available - was discredited
by the prosecutor due to the expert's physical limitations and lack of experience. [4]
[6]
 The jury disregarded the testimony of Hinton's boss, who testified that he was at
work during the time of the alleged crimes.[3]
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. No fingerprints or eyewitness
testimony were introduced. Hinton was convicted of each of the two murders and
sentenced to death.[2][3]
In June 1988, the unanimous Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Hinton's
conviction and death sentence.[7] In June 1989, that judgment was affirmed by the
unanimous Supreme Court of Alabama.[8]

Death row[edit]
Hinton was sent to death row, which meant that he was held in solitary confinement
for nearly three decades. During his decades in prison, he was supported by his
mother's unwavering faith in his innocence, as well as that of a longtime friend,
Lester Bailey, who visited him monthly. Unfortunately, Hinton's mother died in 2002. [4]
While on death row, Hinton spent much of his time reading. He eventually organized
a book club that was allowed to meet in the prison's law library. Among the authors
whom the prisoners read and discussed were James Baldwin and Harper Lee. After
a few years, the club grew for the news spread quickly in the prison that reading was
such a good escape. However, the number of members also gradually became
smaller when book club members were executed. A total of 54 men walked past
Hinton's cell on their way to execution. Hinton would smell burning flesh from the
electric chair, also called Yellow Mama, because it was close to his cell.[3] Finally,
Hinton was the last prisoner left on death row.[3]
Appeals[edit]
Hinton's initial appeals continued to be handled by his public defender, Sheldon C.
Perhacs, who lost each of Hinton’s cases. Perhacs hired a civil engineer who had
impaired vision and didn’t have any forensic experience. The engineer said that
there wasn’t any connection between the weapon and the shooting. However, the
jury disregarded his testimony because of his poor eyesight and inability to use the
microscope correctly.[3]
Doug Acker, a detective, attempted to persuade Hinton to sign a blank sheet of
paper telling him [Hinton] that it was just to confirm that he had already read his
rights. Hinton declined to sign it.[3]
Additionally, Hinton’s 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.[3]
After Hinton had been on death row for about a decade, Bryan Stevenson at
the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a non-profit based in Montgomery, Alabama, picked
up his case,[3] handling his defense for 16 years.[1] 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. But the state
court of Alabama refused to overturn his convictions or grant a new trial. [2]

Exoneration, release and aftermath[edit]

In February 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated the state court
conviction in a unanimous per curiam decision.[9] The Court ruled that Hinton's
original defense lawyer had provided "constitutionally deficient" ineffective
assistance of counsel, and remanded his case to the Alabama state court for retrial.
[10]
 Hinton's original defense lawyer had wrongly thought he had only $1,000 available
to hire a ballistics expert to rebut the state’s case on evidence. The only expert
willing to testify at that price was a civil engineer with very little ballistics training and
limited by having one eye; he admitted in court to having trouble in operating the
microscope.[4]
In November 2014, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals closed Hinton's case.
[11]
 On April 1, 2015 the Jefferson County district attorney’s office moved to drop the
case. Their forensics experts were unable to match crime-scene bullets to Hinton's
mother's gun. Prosecutors admitted that they could not match four bullets found at
the crime scene with Hinton's mother's gun, and that this was the only evidence
offered in the original murder trial.[2]
On April 3, 2015, Hinton was released from prison after Laura Petro, a Jefferson
County Circuit Court judge, overturned his conviction and the state dropped all
charges against him.[1][5]
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. He said, “Everybody that played
a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God.” [4][12] Hinton filed a claim for
nearly $1.5 million in compensation for his time in jail due to the wrongful conviction.
The legislature has resisted approval of this payment, as state authorities say that he
did not prove his innocence.

Anthony Ray Hinton speaking at Politics & Prose in 2018.

Since his release, Hinton has spoken in various venues about the injustices of the
Alabama judicial system and other issues related to his conviction and imprisonment.
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. [3] Hinton's book received extremely positive
reviews.[13] Writing for The Guardian, Tim Adams described the book as, "a story of
forgiveness and struggle"[14] and concludes that, "his wonderful memoir recreates the
ways he escaped from his cell in his head – had tea with the Queen of England,
married Halle Berry – and how he shared that possibility with his fellow death row
inmates."[14] Kirkus Reviews calls the book, "a heart-wrenching yet ultimately hopeful
story about truth, justice, and the need for criminal justice reform." [15]
On May 19, 2019, Hinton spoke at St. Bonaventure University's commencement
exercises and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Human Letters degree. [16] He had
previously spoken to the students of the Class of 2019, six months after his release,
in 2015. The students had been so inspired by his earlier address that over 100 of
them submitted a petition to the university administration, asking that he be invited to
speak at commencement.[17]