Anthony Ray Hinton: 30 Years on Death Row for a Crime He Didn’t Commit| #racialinjustice #crime — Transcript

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1. 0:00In the sweltering Alabama summer of
2. 0:021985,
3. 0:03the cicardas screamed their endless
4. 0:05song. The sun burned down heavy on the
5. 0:07red clay earth, and a young man named
6. 0:10Anthony Ray Hinton pedled his bicycle
7. 0:12along a narrow country road. He was 29
8. 0:15years old, tall, wiry, with a quick
9. 0:17smile and a playful spirit that had
10. 0:19carried him through a childhood of
11. 0:21poverty in the deep south. He had grown
12. 0:23up in a segregated world, raised by a
13. 0:25mother whose faith in God was stronger
14. 0:28than the harsh winds of injustice that
15. 0:29swept through their lives. For Anthony,
16. 0:32life was simple. He worked at a local
17. 0:35warehouse, cared deeply for his mother,
18. 0:37and dreamed of love, family, and
19. 0:40freedom. But on a June morning,
20. 0:42everything changed. The world as he knew
21. 0:45it crumbled in an instant when police
22. 0:47officers showed up at his door with guns
23. 0:49drawn, accusing him of two murders. he
24. 0:52knew nothing about. Anthony Ray Hinton
25. 0:54had never even set foot in the
26. 0:56restaurants where the crimes occurred.
27. 0:57He had no criminal record, no motive,
28. 1:00and an airtight alibi. On the night of
29. 1:02one of the murders, he had been locked
30. 1:04inside a warehouse where he worked as a
31. 1:06night watchman. Yet in Alabama in 1985,
32. 1:10being poor and being black was enough to
33. 1:12be guilty. The arresting officer looked
34. 1:15him in the ars and without hesitation
35. 1:18told him words that would burn into his
36. 1:20memory for the next three decades. I
37. 1:22don't care whether you did it or not.
38. 1:24You are going to be convicted. You're
39. 1:26black. You're poor. You're going to have
40. 1:28a white judge, a white prosecutor, a
41. 1:31white jury, and you're going to be found
42. 1:33guilty. It was not a warning. It was a
43. 1:36prophecy. Anthony was placed in the back
44. 1:38of a police car, his wrists bound, the
45. 1:41air heavy with the scent of dust and
46. 1:43summer heat. As they drove him away from
47. 1:45the life he knew, he could not imagine
48. 1:48that he was beginning a journey that
49. 1:49would steal 30 years of his freedom, 30
50. 1:52years of his youth and almost his very
51. 1:54will to live from the beginning. The
52. 1:56trial was a grotesque performance. The
53. 1:59state of Alabama needed a conviction.
54. 2:01Two fast food managers had been shot
55. 2:03dead during robberies, and the public
56. 2:05demanded justice. The police had no
57. 2:07evidence, no fingerprints, no
58. 2:09eyewitnesses linking Anthony to the
59. 2:11crimes. All they had was a theory. That
60. 2:14theory rested on one thing, a dusty
61. 2:16revolver found in his mother's home. It
62. 2:19had not been fired in years, but the
63. 2:21prosecution claimed it was the murder
64. 2:22weapon. Ballistics experts would
65. 2:24testify. They said that the bullets
66. 2:26matched. What Anthony didn't know then
67. 2:28was that the so-called experts were
68. 2:30anything but antennas. Public defender,
69. 2:33a court-appointed lawyer who seemed more
70. 2:35interested in a quick resolution than
71. 2:37justice, did not bother to hire a
72. 2:39qualified ballistics expert. Instead, he
73. 2:42called a man who admitted he was blind
74. 2:44in one eye and couldn't even properly
75. 2:46operate the equipment. This was the
76. 2:48defense. This was the system that was
77. 2:50supposed to protect the innocent. The
78. 2:52jury was all white. The judge was white.
79. 2:55The prosecutor painted Anthony not as a
80. 2:57man but as a monster lurking in the
81. 2:59shadows and in the end it took the jury
82. 3:02just a few hours to convict him. The
83. 3:04sentence death dotted 29 years old.
84. 3:07Anthony Ray Hinton was told he would die
85. 3:09in Alabama's electric chair. The prison
86. 3:11gates closed behind him with a metallic
87. 3:13clad that seemed to echo forever. He was
88. 3:15led into a cell the size of a bathroom
89. 3:18bear. Concrete walls, a thin mattress, a
90. 3:20steel toilet in the corner. It would be
91. 3:22his home for the next 30 years. Down the
92. 3:25corridor, the death chamber loomed from
93. 3:27his cell. Anthony could smell the faint
94. 3:29metallic tang of burnt flesh whenever
95. 3:32the electric chair was used. He could
96. 3:33hear the clanging of chains, the final
97. 3:36prayers, and sometimes the screams.
98. 3:38Every time a man was led down that
99. 3:40hallway, Anthony felt the brush of death
100. 3:42against his own skin. He knew that one
101. 3:44day, unless something changed, those
102. 3:47steps would be his. The first years were
103. 3:50the hardest. Anger consumed him. A
104. 3:52wildfire of injustice burning in his
105. 3:54chest. He screamed into the silence.
106. 3:57Cursed the wars. Cursed the gods. Cursed
107. 4:00God. Nights were endless. Days were
108. 4:02suffocating. But then something shifted.
109. 4:05Antony remembered his mother's voice,
110. 4:07her unshakable faith. She had taught him
111. 4:10that even in the darkest valley, God
112. 4:12walked beside him. And so Antony made a
113. 4:14choice. If they had taken his freedom,
114. 4:17they would not take his soul. If they
115. 4:19had locked his body, they would not lock
116. 4:21his mind. He began to read. He read
117. 4:23novels, history, poetry, anything he
118. 4:26could get his hands on. Books became
119. 4:28windows to worlds beyond bars. He also
120. 4:31began to imagine conversations with
121. 4:32people who would never set foot in a
122. 4:35prison. Each morning he held court in
123. 4:37his imagination with celebrities, with
124. 4:39presidents, with Oprah, with
125. 4:41Shakespeare, with the Queen of England.
126. 4:43In his mind, he laughed with them,
127. 4:45debated with them, lived freely with
128. 4:48them. Other men on death row noticed.
129. 4:50Ray, they would say, how can you still
130. 4:52smile? How can you laugh when we are
131. 4:54waiting to die? And Anthony told them
132. 4:56the truth. They took my freedom, but
133. 4:58they can't take my joy. They can't touch
134. 5:00my mind. I'm going to live every day
135. 5:02until I can't. He became a beacon for
136. 5:05others on the row. A man who carried
137. 5:07light into the shadows of death. The
138. 5:09years passed slowly. Marked not by
139. 5:11calendars, but by executions. Each time
140. 5:14a man was led away to the chair, the
141. 5:16prison filled with a chilling silence.
142. 5:18Afterward, the guards would casually
143. 5:20roll a stretcher past his cell, a sheet
144. 5:22covering the body. Sometimes Anthony
145. 5:24knew the man beneath the sheet.
146. 5:26Sometimes it was someone he had talked
147. 5:28with only hours before. Years blurred
148. 5:31together until one day a name entered
149. 5:33his life. Brian Stevenson. Stevenson was
150. 5:37a young attorney, the founder of the
151. 5:39Equal Justice Initiative, a man who had
152. 5:42dedicated his life to fighting wrongful
153. 5:44convictions and exposing the racism of
154. 5:46America's justice system. To Anthony, he
155. 5:49was hope wrapped in human skin. Brian
156. 5:52agreed to take his case, and for the
157. 5:54first time in decades, Anthony felt a
158. 5:57flicker of possibility. But the road to
159. 5:59freedom would be long. The heart of the
160. 6:01prosecution's case had always been. The
161. 6:03ballistics test the claim that bullets
162. 6:05from the crime scenes matched his
163. 6:06mother's old revolver. Stevenson brought
164. 6:09in three of the nation's top independent
165. 6:11experts, men with sterling credentials.
166. 6:13Each one examined the evidence and
167. 6:15declared the same thing. The bullets
168. 6:17could not be matched to that gun. In
169. 6:19fact, there was no reliable evidence
170. 6:21linking Anthony to the crimes at all.
171. 6:23Armed with this, Stevenson went back to
172. 6:25court, but the Alabama courts refused to
173. 6:28listen. Judges dismissed the findings.
174. 6:30Prosecutors dug in their heels and
175. 6:32appeals were denied again and again.
176. 6:35Anthony began to despair. Would he die
177. 6:37waiting for justice? Would the truth
178. 6:39ever matter in a system built on lies?
179. 6:42But Brian Stevenson was relentless. For
180. 6:44more than a decade, he filed motions,
181. 6:46argued in hearings, and carried Antony's
182. 6:49case through every level of appeal. And
183. 6:51finally, in 2014, the US Supreme Court
184. 6:54agreed to hear it. On April 3rd, 2015,
185. 6:57after 30 years, Anthony Ray Hinton was
186. 7:00released from prison. He walked out into
187. 7:02the sunlight, blinking, the air sharp
188. 7:05and clean against his face. Reporters
189. 7:07crowded around. Cameras flashed, voices
190. 7:10shouted questions. But Anthony stood
191. 7:12still for a moment, breathing in
192. 7:14freedom. He was 58 years old. He had
193. 7:17gone into prison, a young man full of
194. 7:19dreams. He emerged a man with gray hair
195. 7:21and deep lines carved into his skin, but
196. 7:24with a soul unbroken. His first words to
197. 7:26the crowd were not of anger, but of
198. 7:28forgiveness. "They had every intention
199. 7:31of killing me," he said, his voice
200. 7:33steadier. "But I am not bitter. I am not
201. 7:35angry. I forgive them. I forgive because
202. 7:38not to forgive would only hurt me." The
203. 7:40world was stunned. How could a man lose
204. 7:4230 years to a lie and still stand before
205. 7:45them without rage? But Anthony knew the
206. 7:47truth. Hate had no place in his heart.
207. 7:49He had survived because he had refused
208. 7:51to let hate consume him. Freedom was not
209. 7:54simple. Anthony had no money, no job, no
210. 7:57home. He had lost three decades of life.
211. 8:0030 years of birthdays, holidays, loves
212. 8:03and friendships. His mother was gone.
213. 8:06The world outside had changed beyond
214. 8:08recognition. Technology, politics,
215. 8:11culture, all unrecognizable. But what he
216. 8:13had was a voice.
217. 8:14>> And he used it. Anthony began to speak
218. 8:17publicly about his story. Traveling
219. 8:19across America and beyond, standing
220. 8:21before crowds who listened in Stan's
221. 8:23silence as he described the horror of
222. 8:25death row and the power of forgiveness.
223. 8:27He spoke not only for himself, but for
224. 8:30the hundreds of innocent men still
225. 8:32trapped behind bars and for the
226. 8:34thousands more whose voices would never
227. 8:36be heard. His case exposed everything
228. 8:39wrong with the criminal justice system.
229. 8:41the racism, the indifference, the
230. 8:44incompetence, the cruelty. It showed how
231. 8:46quickly a life could be stolen by
232. 8:48prejudice and how slowly justice moved
233. 8:50to repair the damage. But above all, his
234. 8:53story showed something greater. The
235. 8:55power of forgiveness, the strength of
236. 8:57the human spirit, and the unyielding
237. 8:59hope that even in the darkest places,
238. 9:02light can survive. Anthony often says
239. 9:05that freedom is precious because he
240. 9:07knows what it feels like to live without
241. 9:09it. When he stands in front of a crowd
242. 9:11today, he tells them to never take a
243. 9:13sunrise for granted, never take laughter
244. 9:16for granted, never take love for
245. 9:18granted, because those simple things are
246. 9:21worth more than gold to a man who once
247. 9:23had nothing but concrete. Wolves and the
248. 9:25smell of death. Anthony Ray Hinton was
249. 9:28innocent. He lost 30 years on death row,
250. 9:30but he gained something even greater. A
251. 9:33voice that cannot be silenced, a story
252. 9:35that cannot be forgotten, and a message
253. 9:37the world desperately needs to hear.
254. 9:40Don't let hate wing, he says. Don't let
255. 9:43them steal your joy. If I can forgive
256. 9:45after 30 years, then so can you. And so
257. 9:48his story lives on not just as a
258. 9:50tragedy, but as a triumph, not just as a
259. 9:53reminder of what was lost, but as a
260. 9:55testament to what the human heart can
261. 9:57endure.
262. 10:03[Music]