Anthony Ray Hinton... His Incarceration.Some extracts from his Audiobook The sun does shine.|EP.1 — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00anthony ray hinton spent 30 years in
- 0:02prison for his wrongful conviction
- 0:04one of the most incredible stories i've
- 0:06ever heard a case that's garnered
- 0:08national attention
- 0:09one of the worst nightmares out there he
- 0:12said i don't care whether you did it or
- 0:13didn't do it but i'm gonna make sure you
- 0:15found guilt of it
- 0:17i just somehow wanted to protect my mom
- 0:20i didn't quite know whether she
- 0:22understood he wasn't convicted because
- 0:24he committed a crime
- 0:25he was convicted because he was poor had
- 0:27never been so convinced of someone's
- 0:29innocence
- 0:30than i had in mr hinton's case very
- 0:32scary to think that a man could be
- 0:34killed if he's actually
- 0:35innocent anthony suffered in isolation
- 0:38and darkness
- 0:39i'm so sorry how long will it be before
- 0:42they come and get me
- 0:43the last time she saw you and said son
- 0:45when are you coming home
- 0:47when are you coming home he said whether
- 0:48you shot him or not
- 0:50i don't care you have been found guilty
- 0:54that sentence you to death the entire
- 0:57country was watching
- 0:5830 years of pure hell an incredible
- 1:01story of
- 1:02faith and resilience i don't know if i
- 1:04could have done it
- 1:05it kept getting lower for me i've seen
- 1:07hay that is
- 1:08worse he was ordered to spend the
- 1:10remainder of his life in prison right
- 1:12next to a convicted kkk member
- 1:16there stood two white gentlemen that i
- 1:18never seen before
- 1:20i said can i help you he said we have a
- 1:23warrant for your arrests
- 1:25we want you to put your hands behind
- 1:27your back i show my mother the handcuff
- 1:30and
- 1:30like any good mother she began to stream
- 1:33and holler
- 1:33what are those handcuffs doing on my
- 1:35baby
- 1:36this scene is set to detect off he
- 1:38turned around he looked at me and he
- 1:40said
- 1:41we have decided that we're going to
- 1:45charge you with two counts
- 1:47of first degree capital murder i said
- 1:50but i haven't done any of that
- 1:52you got the wrong person he said let me
- 1:54tell you something
- 1:55right now i don't care whether you did
- 1:58it or didn't do it
- 1:59he said but i'm going to make sure you
- 2:01found guilty and by the way
- 2:04there's five things that going to
- 2:06convict you
- 2:08he said number one you black number two
- 2:11a white man is gonna say you shot him
- 2:13whether you shot him or not i don't care
- 2:18he said number three you're gonna have a
- 2:20white prosecutor
- 2:22number four you're gonna have a white
- 2:24judge and number five
- 2:27you're gonna have an all-white jew he
- 2:30said do you know what that spell
- 2:33and he looked at me and he said
- 2:35conviction conviction
- 2:37conviction conviction conviction
- 2:42he said i really believe you didn't do
- 2:44it he said but since y'all is always
- 2:47taken up for one another he said take
- 2:49this for your homeboy
- 2:52i goes before a judge
- 2:55the judge proudly stand up and say
- 2:57anthony ray hinton
- 2:59you have been found guilty and it is
- 3:03the order discord that i sentence you to
- 3:06death
- 3:09i really lost sight for a few seconds
- 3:13i was just totally in shock
- 3:16i just somehow wanted to protect my mom
- 3:20i didn't quite know whether she
- 3:22understood
- 3:24i didn't want the world to believe that
- 3:27my mom
- 3:29had raised a son that was capable
- 3:32of taking another human being life
- 3:35and so i asked god to let the truth come
- 3:39out
- 3:40the last time she saw you and every time
- 3:42she heard your voice it said
- 3:44son when are you coming home are you
- 3:46coming home she would ask me that
- 3:49and i i lied to her every time she asked
- 3:52me
- 3:53a moment they're working on it or
- 3:56they're just going to take some time and
- 3:59i was transported to death row i did not
- 4:03say a word
- 4:04to another human being for three years
- 4:08going into the fourth year
- 4:11i woke up approximately 1am to the sound
- 4:14of a grown man crying a man that i had
- 4:17lived by
- 4:18should never ask him his name or where
- 4:21he was from
- 4:23but at the early age my mother taught me
- 4:25compassion
- 4:27my mother told me no matter what one
- 4:29does in life
- 4:30he or she still deserve compassion and
- 4:34it was that compassion
- 4:35that i hollered through this brick wall
- 4:38and i said
- 4:39sir do you need me to call and get the
- 4:42officer back here
- 4:43he said no my name's ray
- 4:47i said there was silence
- 4:50there was something in this guy's voice
- 4:53he sounded alone i'm from praco
- 4:57i said i'm proud to be the son of
- 4:59bueller hinton
- 5:00the best mother god ever sent down to
- 5:02this earth who can make a pie like an
- 5:04angel and swat you like the devil if you
- 5:06try to eat it before he says so
- 5:10heard a few guys laugh but i didn't know
- 5:12if the guy whose name i was waiting on
- 5:13was one of them
- 5:14[Music]
- 5:15mama makes a pretty good pie herself he
- 5:18finally said
- 5:19my name is henry henry was
- 5:24a ku klux klansman sorry his daddy was a
- 5:27grand wizard in the clans organization
- 5:30henry's father was upset that a black
- 5:32man had got found not guilty
- 5:34in a murder trial and he ordered him to
- 5:36go out and kill the first black
- 5:38man that they came across as i got to
- 5:40know henry
- 5:41and realized henry had been taught to
- 5:44hate all his life
- 5:46i had no anger toward henry he had been
- 5:49taught to fear blacks
- 5:51he had been trained to hate
- 5:54henry and i became friends and before
- 5:56henry was moved to the death room to
- 5:58wait for his execution we talked one
- 6:01last time
- 6:03i'm sorry ray i'm sorry for what i've
- 6:05done i know you are
- 6:07god knows you are i don't know if i ever
- 6:09told you this but
- 6:11i have a brother named ray he's my
- 6:13brother too
- 6:14[Music]
- 6:15i could hear that henry was crying and
- 6:17my heart broke for him
- 6:19henry was my friend it wasn't
- 6:21complicated
- 6:22i would show him compassion because
- 6:24that's how i was raised
- 6:27compassion doesn't know what color you
- 6:28are and i think henry felt more love
- 6:30from the black man on death row
- 6:32than he ever did at a kkk meeting or
- 6:35from his own father and mother
- 6:38and i was told that henry said
- 6:41all of my life my father my mother my
- 6:44community taught me
- 6:46to hate the very people that they taught
- 6:49me the haters the very people that
- 6:50taught me how to love
- 6:52and tonight as i leave this world
- 6:56i leave this world
- 7:04knowing what love feel like
- 7:06[Music]
- 7:10and i often say that if we can teach
- 7:12people to hate
- 7:14we should be able to teach them to love
- 7:17i really believe him left this world a
- 7:19better man that he came in
- 7:22in 30 years i witnessed 54 men
- 7:26walk by myself only to be executed
- 7:31and i kept saying how long can i survive
- 7:34this madness
- 7:36how long will it be before they come
- 7:39and get me the night
- 7:43i found out that my mom had died
- 7:47i really didn't give a damn whether i
- 7:50lived
- 7:52and that night as i tried to sleep
- 7:55it was as though my mom came in and
- 7:57sailed and stayed in my ear
- 7:58all night long and i could hear her
- 8:01saying
- 8:02i did not bring you up to be a quarter
- 8:05and earlier that morning i called mr
- 8:08stevenson and i said mr stevenson
- 8:11i want you to give the state of alabama
- 8:14all the hell you can give
- 8:17stevenson and the equal justice
- 8:19initiative spent 16 years working on mr
- 8:21hinton's case
- 8:23mr hinton should have never been
- 8:25convicted he wasn't convicted because he
- 8:27committed a crime
- 8:27he was convicted because he was poor and
- 8:30didn't have the resources to prove his
- 8:32innocence
- 8:32the united states supreme court had
- 8:34finally intervened the result was a new
- 8:36trial
- 8:36the break hinton had been waiting for
- 8:38the state of alabama dropped the case
- 8:40after a new look of the evidence could
- 8:42not match the bullets to the gun
- 8:45and hinton was released
- 8:51it took mr stevenson 16 long years
- 8:55to finally ruin my freedom
- 8:57[Applause]
- 9:00would you believe this the first time
- 9:02i've been in the rain
- 9:03in 30 years it was wonderful
- 9:06i mean i could just stayed in the rain
- 9:09that whole
- 9:10day if if i could have and everybody
- 9:13kept saying get out of the rain you get
- 9:15sick i said i haven't had rain on my
- 9:17body for 30 years
- 9:20my mom uh i still love her and although
- 9:23she's not here she'll
- 9:25always be in here uh there's not a day
- 9:27that goes by
- 9:28not a night that i don't take her photo
- 9:30and kiss
- 9:31and say good night my mother had worked
- 9:34all her life to
- 9:36have a home built and when i came home i
- 9:39wanted to fix this whole house up
- 9:42and it has a connection with me and her
- 9:46and i did it in her memory
- 9:49just because someone do you wrong they
- 9:52don't make
- 9:53the right that you go do them wrong i
- 9:56can dwell on
- 9:57the negative and never grow
- 10:01so i choose to embrace
- 10:04uh the good i don't sense any bitterness
- 10:08why is that bitterness kills the soul
- 10:12i cannot hate
- 10:16i've seen hey that is worse
- 10:19what would it profit me to hate
- 10:23therefore taught me that either you love
- 10:25what you hate
- 10:26therefore taught me you either help or
- 10:28you're harmed death row taught me no
- 10:30matter where we are
- 10:32we still can love and we still can help
- 10:35one another
- 10:36if we can teach people to hate we should
- 10:39be able to teach them to love
- 10:52you
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