Justice versus Conscience

Anthony Ray Hinton was wrongfully convicted and spent 30 years on death row — now he’s telling his story.
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Anthony Ray Hinton spent 30 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit.  

He was wrongfully convicted of two murders and served nearly three decades in jail before being released in 2015. He also wrote a book about his time in prison called The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, which has since been selected for Oprah’s Book Club. 

“Time is nothing like it once was. In fact, time don’t even exist.” he explained to Oprah, when asked if he kept track of the days or months while behind bars. “Because you’re in a place where — when they time is an end they gonna come get you. And they gonna strap you down in a chair.”

In his book, Hinton talks about how the justice system is stacked “against a poor black man.”

“It took the United States Supreme Court, I’ll never forget he came down to the prison, he said, ‘Ray, the judges in Alabama are not gonna do the right thing.’ And he said, ‘We’ll have to take this case to the United States Supreme Court.’ But he said, ‘I need to tell you something.’ He said, ‘If they rule against you, the state of Alabama will execute you within two years.’ And believe it or not, hearing that was somewhere of a relief. I was tired of sitting out the time, being in this cage. And I said, ‘Mr, Stevenson, file my case.’”