Sunday, 5 April 2015

Man On Death Roll in Alabama Released After 30years

Anthony Ray Hinton, 58, spent half his life on Alabama’s death row. He was convicted of murdering two restaurant managers in Birmingham in 1985, but was granted a new trial last year. The outside world changed while Hinton spent his days largely in a 5ft by 8ft prison cell. Children grew up. His mother died. His hair turned gray. Inmates he knew were escorted off to the electric chair or the lethal-injection gurney. His lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, said his client was convicted because he could not afford better legal counsel. He was set free on Friday after new ballistics tests contradicted the only evidence – an analysis of crime-scene bullets – that connected Hinton to the slayings.

The only evidence linking him to the slayings were bullets that state experts then said had markings that matched a .38-caliber revolver that belonged to Hinton’s mother. There were no fingerprints or eyewitness testimony. Hinton planned to put flowers on his mother’s grave. After that comes the adjustment to the modern world after spending nearly half of his life in solitary confinement.
“The world is a very different place than what it was 30 years ago,” Stevenson said. “There was no Internet. There was no email. I gave him an iPhone this morning. He’s completely mystified by that.”
At his first trial, Mr Hinton's lawyer believed his client only had $1,000 (£670) to hire an expert that could defend against the prosecution's allegations about the bullets.
The lawyer hired the only expert willing to take the job at that rate, and jurors reportedly laughed as the expert struggled to answer questions during cross-examination.

The US Supreme Court ruled last year that Mr Hinton did not have adequate legal counsel at the first trial and said the case should be reconsidered at a second trial.

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