"I Spent 30 YEARS In Prison For A Crime I DIDN'T COMMIT!" | Anthony Ray Hinton — Transcript

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1. 0:00anthony ray hinton spent 30 years in
2. 0:02prison for his wrongful conviction
3. 0:04one of the most incredible stories i've
4. 0:06ever heard a case that's garnered
5. 0:08national attention
6. 0:09one of the worst nightmares out there he
7. 0:11said i don't care whether you did
8. 0:13it or didn't do it but i'm gonna make
9. 0:15sure you found guilt of it
10. 0:17i just somehow wanted to protect my mom
11. 0:20i didn't quite know whether she
12. 0:22understood he wasn't convicted because
13. 0:24he committed a crime
14. 0:25he was convicted because he was poor had
15. 0:27never been so convinced of someone's
16. 0:29innocence
17. 0:30than i had in mr hinton's case very
18. 0:32scary to think that a man
19. 0:33could be killed if he's actually
20. 0:35innocent anthony suffered in isolation
21. 0:38and darkness i'm so sorry how long will
22. 0:41it be before they come and get
23. 0:42me the last time she saw you and said
24. 0:45son when are you coming home
25. 0:46when are you coming home he said whether
26. 0:48you shot him or not
27. 0:50i don't care you have been found guilty
28. 0:54god sentenced you to death the entire
29. 0:56country was
30. 0:57watching 30 years of pure hell an
31. 1:00incredible story of
32. 1:02faith and resilience i don't know if i
33. 1:04could have done it it kept getting no
34. 1:05lower for me
35. 1:06i've seen hate that is worse he was
36. 1:09ordered to spend the remainder of his
37. 1:11life in prison
38. 1:12right next to a convicted kkk member
39. 1:16there are still two white gentlemen that
40. 1:18i never seen before
41. 1:20i said can i help you he said we have a
42. 1:23warrant for your arrests
43. 1:25we want you to put your hands behind
44. 1:27your back i show my mother the
45. 1:29handcuffing
46. 1:30like any good mother she began to stream
47. 1:32and holler
48. 1:33what are those handcuffs doing on my
49. 1:35baby
50. 1:36this scene is set to detect off he
51. 1:38turned around he looked at me and he
52. 1:40said
53. 1:41we have decided that we're going to
54. 1:45charge you with two counts
55. 1:47of first degree capital murder i said
56. 1:50but i haven't done any of that
57. 1:52you got the wrong person he said let me
58. 1:54tell you something
59. 1:55right now i don't care whether you did
60. 1:58it or didn't do it
61. 1:59he said but i'm going to make sure you
62. 2:01found guilty
63. 2:02and by the way there's five things that
64. 2:06going to convict you
65. 2:08he said number one you black number two
66. 2:11a white man is gonna say you shot him
67. 2:13whether you shot him or not i don't care
68. 2:18he said number three you're gonna have a
69. 2:20white prosecutor
70. 2:22number four you're gonna have a white
71. 2:24judge and number five
72. 2:27you're gonna have an all-white jewelry
73. 2:30he said do you know what that spell
74. 2:33and he looked at me and he said
75. 2:35conviction conviction
76. 2:37conviction conviction conviction
77. 2:42he said i really believe you didn't do
78. 2:44it he said but since y'all is always
79. 2:47taken up for one another he said take
80. 2:49this for your homeboy
81. 2:52i goes before a judge the judge proudly
82. 2:56stand up and say anthony ray hinton
83. 2:59you have been found guilty and it is
84. 3:02the order discord that i sentence you to
85. 3:06death
86. 3:09i really lost sight for a few seconds
87. 3:13i was just totally in shock
88. 3:16i just somehow wanted to protect my mom
89. 3:20i didn't quite know whether she
90. 3:22understood
91. 3:24i didn't want the world to believe that
92. 3:27my mom
93. 3:29had raised a son that was capable
94. 3:32of taking another human being life
95. 3:35and so i asked god to let the truth come
96. 3:39out
97. 3:40the last time she saw you and every time
98. 3:42she heard your voices said
99. 3:44son when are you coming home are you
100. 3:46coming home she would ask me that
101. 3:49and i i lied to her every time she asked
102. 3:52me
103. 3:53a moment they're working on it or
104. 3:56they're just gonna take some time
105. 3:59i was transported to death row i did not
106. 4:03say a word
107. 4:04to another human being for three years
108. 4:08going into the fourth year i woke up
109. 4:11approximately at one am
110. 4:14to the sound of a grown man crying a man
111. 4:16that i had lived by
112. 4:18should never ask him his name or where
113. 4:21he was from
114. 4:23but at early my mother taught me
115. 4:25compassion
116. 4:27my mother told me no matter what one
117. 4:29does in life
118. 4:30he or she still deserve compassion
119. 4:33and it was that compassion that i
120. 4:36hollered through this brick wall
121. 4:38and i said sir do you need me to call
122. 4:41and get the officer back here
123. 4:43he said no my name's ray
124. 4:46i said there was silence
125. 4:50there was something in this guy's voice
126. 4:53he sounded alone
127. 4:55i'm from praco i said i'm proud to be
128. 4:58the son of bueller hinton
129. 5:00the best mother god ever sent down to
130. 5:01this earth who can make a pie like an
131. 5:04angel and swat you like the devil if you
132. 5:06try to eat it before she says
133. 5:09i so a few guys laugh but i didn't know
134. 5:12if the guy whose name i was waiting on
135. 5:13was one of them
136. 5:15mama makes a pretty good pie herself he
137. 5:18finally said
138. 5:19my name is henry henry was
139. 5:22uh a crew clothes classroom song
140. 5:26his daddy was a grand wizard in the
141. 5:28clans organization
142. 5:30every father was upset that a black man
143. 5:32had got found not guilty
144. 5:34in a murder trial and he ordered him to
145. 5:36go out and kill the first black
146. 5:38man that they came across as i got to
147. 5:40know henry
148. 5:41and realized henry had been taught to
149. 5:43hate all his life
150. 5:46i had no anger toward henry he had been
151. 5:49taught to fear blacks
152. 5:50he had been trained to hate
153. 5:54henry and i became friends and before
154. 5:56henry was moved to the death room to
155. 5:58wait for his execution we talked one
156. 6:01last time
157. 6:02i'm sorry ray i'm sorry for what i done
158. 6:05i know you are
159. 6:07god knows you are i don't know if i ever
160. 6:09told you this but
161. 6:11i have a brother named ray he's my
162. 6:13brother too
163. 6:15i could hear that henry was crying and
164. 6:17my heart broke for him
165. 6:19henry was my friend it wasn't
166. 6:21complicated
167. 6:22i would show him compassion because
168. 6:24that's how i was raised
169. 6:26compassion doesn't know what color you
170. 6:28are and i think henry felt more love
171. 6:30from the black man on death row
172. 6:32than he ever did at a kkk meeting or
173. 6:35from his own father and mother
174. 6:37and i was told that henry said
175. 6:41all of my life my father my mother my
176. 6:44community taught me
177. 6:46to hate the very people that they taught
178. 6:49me the haters the very people that
179. 6:50taught me how to love
180. 6:52and tonight as i leave this world
181. 6:56i leave this world
182. 7:04knowing what love feel like
183. 7:05[Music]
184. 7:10and i often say that if we can teach
185. 7:12people to hate
186. 7:14we should be able to teach them to love
187. 7:17i really believe him left this world a
188. 7:19better man that he came in
189. 7:22in 30 years i witnessed 54 men
190. 7:26walk by my sail only to be executed
191. 7:30and i kept saying how long can i survive
192. 7:34this madness
193. 7:36how long will it be before they come and
194. 7:39get me
195. 7:42the night i found out that my mom had
196. 7:45died
197. 7:47i really didn't give a damn well i live
198. 7:52and that night as i tried to sleep it
199. 7:55was as though my mom came in and sailed
200. 7:57and stayed in my ear
201. 7:58all night long and i could hear her
202. 8:00saying
203. 8:01i did not bring you up to be a quarter
204. 8:05and earlier that morning i called mr
205. 8:08stevenson and i said mr stevenson
206. 8:11i want you to give the state of alabama
207. 8:14all the hell you can give stevenson and
208. 8:18the equal justice initiative spent
209. 8:2016 years working on mr hinton's case
210. 8:23mr hinton should have never been
211. 8:24convicted he wasn't convicted because he
212. 8:26committed a crime
213. 8:27he was convicted because he was poor and
214. 8:29didn't have the resources to prove his
215. 8:32innocence
216. 8:32the united states supreme court had
217. 8:34finally intervened the result was a new
218. 8:36trial the break hinton had been waiting
219. 8:38for the state of alabama dropped the
220. 8:40case
221. 8:40after a new look of the evidence could
222. 8:42not match the bullets to the gun
223. 8:45and hinton was released
224. 8:47[Music]
225. 8:51it took mr stevenson 16 long years
226. 8:55to finally ruin my freedom
227. 8:57[Applause]
228. 9:00would you believe this the first time
229. 9:01i've been in the rain
230. 9:03in 30 years it was wonderful
231. 9:06i mean i could just stayed in the rain
232. 9:09that whole
233. 9:10day if if i could have and everybody
234. 9:13kept saying get out of the rain you get
235. 9:14sick i said i haven't had rain on my
236. 9:17body for 30 years
237. 9:20my mom uh i still love her and although
238. 9:23she's not here she'll
239. 9:24always be in here uh there's not a day
240. 9:27that go by
241. 9:28not a night that i don't take her photo
242. 9:30and kiss and say good night mom
243. 9:33my mother had worked all her life to
244. 9:36have a home built and when i came home i
245. 9:39wanted to fix this whole house up
246. 9:42and it has a connection with me and her
247. 9:46and i did it in her memory
248. 9:49just because someone do you wrong they
249. 9:52don't make
250. 9:53the right that you go do them wrong i
251. 9:56can
252. 9:56dwell on the negative and never grow
253. 10:01so i choose to embrace
254. 10:04the good i don't sense any bitterness
255. 10:07why is that bitterness kills the soul
256. 10:12i cannot hate
257. 10:16i've seen hey that is worse
258. 10:19what would it profit me to hate
259. 10:23therefore taught me that either you love
260. 10:25what you hate
261. 10:26therefore taught me you either help or
262. 10:28your heart
263. 10:29deafero taught me no matter where we are
264. 10:32we still can love and we still can
265. 10:34help one another if we can teach people
266. 10:37to hate
267. 10:39we should be able to teach them to love
268. 11:04you