All rights reserved. Anthony Ray Hinton was going out of his mind on Alabamas death row as he repeatedly churned over the iniquities of the shambolic trial that put him there. Anthony Ray Hinton, an inmate on Alabama's death row, asks us to decide whether the Alabama courts correctly applied Strickland to his case. Anthony Ray Hinton, an innocent man who wrongly served 30 years on death row, shared his story with UWO students at a speaker event last Thursday night. Log in to hide ads. An incredible number of schools selected Just Mercy and, unfortunately, Stevenson was not able to speak at St. Bonaventure while still maintaining his caseload and teaching commitments, Brown said. Refine any search. continue to use the site without a However, the number of members also gradually became smaller when book club members were executed. 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 thought about Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock and what it would be like to marry them. I looked at her living in this palace and in a way she is imprisoned just like I was. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. We tackle difficult conversations and divisive issueswe dont shy away from hard problems. The first few years of prison were tough. and "Y'all blacks always sticking up for each other."[who?] Just this week, he flew from Birmingham to Philadelphia to talk to more than 1,500 people at a church only to get up the next morning to catch a plane and speak at Boston University today. 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. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. Mr. Hinton thanked his supporters and legal team. He feels like a slave as they lead him into the backseat of a van and drive for three hours. Anthony Ray, then a 29-year-old warehouseman, was mowing his mum's lawn when his life was torn apart in July 1985. 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. If you have questions about your account, please Experts have proven that a shell casing used during the trial to link Musgrove to the Sept. 27, 1986, slaying of Coy Eugene Barron had nothing to do with the crime, the defense claims, and police pressured Barron's wife to identify Musgrove as the shooter even though she first told police she saw nothing. This thought continuously replayed for Anthony Ray Hinton while he sat on death row for nearly 30 years. Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent 28 years on Alabama's death row for two murders despite his claims of innocence, walked free earlier this month after prosecutors admitted they couldn't prove. Anthony Hinton, 29 years old with no history of violent crime, steadfastly maintained his innocence. Police arrived at the house near Birmingham, Alabama, and arrested him for the. Stevenson had new ballistics tests done by three experts that Alabamas judicial system could not discredit, including the former chief of firearms testing at the FBI. After a few years, the club grew as the news spread quickly in the prison that reading was a good escape. The first step on the path to salvation for Hinton came after a decade inside. The photographs of Hinton at his trial show a slender man with a trimmed moustache. Im a better person, said Woodfin. And if thats not enough, Hinton is a sought-after public speaker, delivering messages of faith, forgiveness and a flawed criminal justice system. Held on death row for nearly 30 years he was finally released on 3 April 2015 after his appeal was taken right up to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that his case should be retried. The prosector, Bob McGregor, was twice found by courts to have illegally discriminated against African Americans by excluding them from juries. With no credible expert to challenge the States assertion of a match, Mr. Hinton was convicted and sentenced to death. Hosted by Club Downunder in the Ruby Diamond Concert Hall, viewers experienced the raw emotion of Hinton, a wrongly convicted inmate who spent nearly three decades in . Hinton is back living in the house where his mother spent her last days convinced of her sons innocence. A selection of the most viewed stories this week on the Monitor's website. A weekly digest of Monitor views and insightful commentary on major events. 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. Three, youre going to have a white prosecutor. Black men are imprisoned just for being black men. 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.. A photo made available by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Anthony Ray Hinton. Hinton regarded the ruling as political and racial. But youll find in each Monitor news story qualities that can lead to solutions and unite usqualities such as respect, resilience, hope, and fairness. If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent 28 years on Alabama's death row for two murders despite his claims of innocence, walked free earlier this month after prosecutors admitted they couldn't prove. "I ask someone please tell me tonight where I do find justice for spending 30 years in solitary confinement?". Hinton was so angry he refused to speak. Police arrived at the house near Birmingham, Alabama, and arrested him for the murder of fast food bosses John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vasona. Im thinking of the detectives the judges Im thinking about all of these people who were intentional and caused you grief or harm. On February 24, 2014, the Supreme Court today unanimously granted relief to Anthony Hinton, finding that his trial lawyer was constitutionally deficient. No fingerprints or eyewitness testimony were introduced. 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. When Mr. Hinton shared his story, the room was silent. on his face. In that moment, I felt the first real twinge of fear, Hinton writes in his book. Because spending almost 30 years on death row for two murders he didnt commit has left Anthony Ray, 62, with nightmare memories and deep psychological wounds. Instant downloads of all 1725 LitChart PDFs In the book, the prosecutor described Musgrove and Rogers as being "thugs" employed by a drug dealer who wanted Barron killed over suspicions he stole 40 pounds of marijuana. You dont have a Christian Science Monitor The state of Alabama had every intention of killing me for a crime I didnt commit. But what I never lost sight of was I was sentenced to death. The detective said, I dont care whether you did or didnt do it. And besides, Musgrove's lawyers contend: Witness testimony and phone records showed he was in Florida, hundreds of miles away, at the time of the killing. 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.[19]. Im going to make sure youre found guilty, he recalls. Despite an absence of any witnesses or fingerprints, on September 17, 1986, Anthony Ray was sentenced to death in Alabamas notorious, Yellow Mama, electric chair. 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. [emailprotected]. [3], In February 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated the state court conviction in a unanimous per curiam decision. On April 3, 2015, Jefferson County circuit judge Laura Petro finally overturned the conviction, dropping all charges immediately. In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. The States evidence of a match was wholly discredited by three highly qualified firearms examiners, including the former chief of the FBIs firearm and toolmarks unit, who testified in 2002 that the bullets from all three crimes could not be matched to a single gun at all, much less to Mrs. Hintons gun, and found that her gun could not have fired the bullets from the third uncharged robbery. Now he is stocky with a greying beard to match his hair. 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. In 2014 the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously overturned his conviction on appeal, after . 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. Faced with Hinton's claims of innocence, the Jefferson County district attorney's office this month moved to drop the case after their forensics experts agreed that the crime-scene bullets couldn't be matched to the gun. Four, youre going to have a white judge and number five, youre going to have an all-white jury., What he didnt say at any point was, The evidence is whats going to convict you, or, We have fingerprints, or, We have an eyewitness., I couldnt eat, I couldnt drink. And now the moving book he wrote about his ordeal is set to be made into a film by Oprah Winfrey. As the prosecutor said: Even if we didnt get the right one, at least we got one off the street. And that was referring to a black person only he didnt use the word black.. In 1985, Birmingham, Alabama, courts convicted Hinton of murdering two restaurant managers, said the exonerated 30-year inmate. He was sent to solitary con- finement at Alabamas Holman correctional facility nicknamed the Slaughter Pen and regarded as Americas most dangerous jail. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Hatred is nothing but a form of cancer and it will eat you up.. Join Washington Post senior critic-at-large Robin . Latest book reviews, author interviews, and reading trends. He was kept going by his mothers unfailing belief in his innocence and the support of a childhood friend, Lester Bailey, who never missed a visit all the years Hinton was in prison. Struggling with distance learning? I thought about all the things I had lost. 2d 674. Im happy to be able to try to bring changes to a broken system. With hope of freedom vanishing, he escaped the horror of confinement with daily flights of fancy. When Hinton leaves the house these days he leaves a trail so he can prove where hes been. Sometimes, we call things boring simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.. To say they have the best justice system in the world when every day race plays a part in who goes to prison, who dont go to prison. Botched ballistics evidence and a questionable eyewitness identification may help him get a new trial. They cared about the colour of my skin. Were the bran muffin of journalism. In his petition, the lawyer called Alabamas death penalty a perverse monument to inequality. When the case reached court prosecutor Bob McGregor, who had a record of illegally excluding African-American jurors from his cases, argued the shots had all been fired from an old handgun found at Anthony Rays mothers home. Mr. Hinton hugs EJI lawyer Charlotte Morrison. He said, Number one, we going to convict you because youre black. Hinton would smell burning flesh from the electric chair, also called Yellow Mama, because it was close to his cell. We conclude that they did not and hold that Hinton's trial attorney rendered constitutionally deficient performance. 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. or call us at 1-617-450-2300. While McGregor also is dead, he self-published a book in 2009 depicting both Hinton and Musgrove as cold-blooded killers. He was convicted in connection to two homicides that happened in 1985. The state of Alabama had every intention of killing me for a crime I didnt commit, said Hinton. [10] 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. called him, confessing he was the real killer, but no one hunted the man down. And Im hoping that if ever I was charged with anything again I could say, you can check my phone and hopefully it will clear me, he said. In 1985, two Birmingham area fast-food restaurants were robbed and the managers, John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason, were fatally shot. Perhacs and. contact customer service His poorly paid, inept defence attorney Sheldon Parhacs then hired a one-eyed ballistics expert and McGregor lacerated his testimony. [4], Hinton's initial appeals continued to be handled by his public defender, Sheldon C. Perhacs, who lost each of Hintons cases. I need you to accept this because, if you dont, youre going to hang yourself. A total of 54 men walked past Hinton's cell on their way to execution. What I learned about forgiveness is that its not about the other person. Hinton's story defined the panel discussion on . (334) 269-1803 The three most recent Christian Science articles with a spiritual perspective. The state of Alabama had every intention of killing me for a crime I didnt commit: Anthony Ray Hinton enjoying his freedom. We are thrilled that Mr. Hinton will finally be released because he has unnecessarily spent years on Alabamas death row when evidence of his innocence was clearly presented, said his lead attorney, Bryan Stevenson. That was all they needed," said Jackson, Musgrove's lawyer. I called it hell. His cell was so close to the electric chair he could smell the burning flesh of the men hed been debating the writings of James Baldwin and Harper Lee with. The challenge comes too late for help Musgrove's co-defendant Rogers, who died in prison. There was death and ghosts everywhere. That alone should have been enough to overturn the conviction. One visiting day he called Hinton and another black prisoner over to meet his father, introducing them as his friends. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Anthony Ray Hinton speaks to UWO students about the 30 years he wrongfully served on death row for a crime he didn't commit in 1985 in Birmingham, Alabama.
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