the sun does shine by anthony ray hinton

But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence-full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. 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.īut with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. 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 attorney’s deficient representation, and Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Laura Petro ordered a new trial.A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Hinton was convicted and sentenced to death. With no credible expert to challenge the State’s assertion of a match, Mr. 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. Hinton was appointed a lawyer who mistakenly thought he could not get enough money to hire a qualified firearms examiner. A polygraph test given by police exonerated him, but the judge (now-retired Circuit Judge James Garrett) refused to admit it at trial. Hinton to the Davidson and Vason murders.Īnthony Hinton, 29 years old with no history of violent crime, steadfastly maintained his innocence. Hinton’s gun and the bullets from all three crimes was the only evidence linking Mr. Hinton was guilty and “evil” solely from his appearance-told the court that the State’s experts’ asserted match between Mrs. The prosecutor-who had a documented history of racial bias and said he could tell Mr. Hinton’s mother, and state firearm examiners said that was the gun used in all three crimes. Police seized an old revolver belonging to Mr. 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. There were no eyewitnesses or fingerprint evidence police had no suspects and pressure to solve the murders grew as similar crimes continued.

In 1985, two Birmingham area fast-food restaurants were robbed and the managers, John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason, were fatally shot.

The sun does shine by anthony ray hinton