Oprah and Anthony Ray Hinton on death row, first night of freedom — Transcript

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1. 0:00welcome back we're here with Oprah and
2. 0:03her newest book club pick and along with
3. 0:05Anthony ray Hinton he wrote the Sun does
4. 0:08shine how I found life and freedom on
5. 0:10death row and it is an incredible story
6. 0:11I like John's point where you talked
7. 0:13about reading or Norah talked about
8. 0:15reading in the book club where your mind
9. 0:17can go because your mind you married
10. 0:18Halle Berry yes then you dropped Halle
11. 0:20Berry for Sandra Bullock you and your
12. 0:22mind it was a good marriage then you
13. 0:29like then you played in Wimbledon yes
14. 0:32you were on the New York Yankees on your
15. 0:36mind
16. 0:36you did that because what mr. Anton I
17. 0:38needed to escape yeah to live on a 5x7
18. 0:42day in and day out 365 days a year is
19. 0:46unbearable and can anyone imagine if
20. 0:50you're there for something you know you
21. 0:52didn't do yeah that was worse so even
22. 0:55when there was a lawyer at one point who
23. 0:57offered you the opportunity to be able
24. 1:00to take the life sentence you said you
25. 1:02would rather die the life sentence would
26. 1:04mean that you were admitting you pass a
27. 1:07polygraph you had an alibi where you
28. 1:10wouldn't work
29. 1:10people were ready to say he was at work
30. 1:12and they didn't want to hear it and and
31. 1:14yet the first night you have here
32. 1:16freedom where did you spend the night I
33. 1:18spent it at luster house we stayed up to
34. 1:23about 2:00 in the morning and when they
35. 1:26went to bed I got in this bed that I
36. 1:29felt what's the sawfish bed that I ever
37. 1:31laid in could you like a soft thing miss
38. 1:33softly I didn't but this soft thing
39. 1:37about hour later became the nightmare to
40. 1:41me hmm
41. 1:41I couldn't see if I had to go in this
42. 1:43bathroom and lay on the floor and sleep
43. 1:45and my heart rate was just beating and I
44. 1:48said I know God didn't bring me out of
45. 1:51here let me die of a heart attack mm-hmm
46. 1:54and one once I ran into the bedroom I
47. 1:55didn't want to wake that stuff and his
48. 1:57wife up and I got went in the bathroom I
49. 2:00shut the door and as I sit on the floor
50. 2:02my heart rate starts going down
51. 2:05and I realized that I had lived in a
52. 2:07place so small for 30 years a 5x7
53. 2:12yes yeah that I wasn't used to being in
54. 2:15this open space and I just locked the
55. 2:18door and got in on all the feat of
56. 2:20positioning just what was it like when
57. 2:23you first walked out I know you called
58. 2:24the book the Sun does shine because
59. 2:26that's what you said when you first
60. 2:27walked out of being incarcerated for 30
61. 2:31years what was it like to be in that
62. 2:33world of an open space and sky and grass
63. 2:37and trees the first time it was
64. 2:39beautiful I couldn't believe it and in
65. 2:43my mind I kept saying is this a dream
66. 2:45because I had fantasized so much in my
67. 2:48mind and trying to escape and I kept
68. 2:51asking myself am i fantasize and now and
69. 2:54I looked up and the sun was shining on
70. 2:56me that day brighter than it was but
71. 2:58there's a funny part in the story about
72. 3:00you and Lester driving you're thinking
73. 3:01who is this white woman talking doors
74. 3:03tell us that the first time you were
75. 3:05there first time you're in the car
76. 3:06giving leaving prison oh he actually saw
77. 3:09where the first place you want to go and
78. 3:11I said I want you to take me where they
79. 3:13laid my mother body yeah I know she's
80. 3:15not there but I want to go and see what
81. 3:17they later and he's okay and I buck up
82. 3:20and I've seen him fidgeting with the
83. 3:23radio I'm thanking him trying to find a
84. 3:24radio station yeah and he was putting it
85. 3:26in now that I know address and as we
86. 3:29went down there they rolled this white
87. 3:31lady come on turn this off where he
88. 4:00couldn't take it in movie turn in 700
89. 4:03feet and he yes and he said that's GPS
90. 4:07he says she's in here
91. 4:14a lot change but he had told me a lot to
92. 4:19learn Brian said the world have changed
93. 4:21so much yeah Brian Stevenson says that
94. 4:24this is really about the evolution of
95. 4:26slavery that slavery becomes lynching
96. 4:29lynching becomes codified segregation
97. 4:31and now we're in an era of mass
98. 4:33incarceration and you end this book with
99. 4:35all the names of the people on death row
100. 4:38and I think that is especially poignant
101. 4:41because we all need to be reminded of
102. 4:42what this is it's not just you yeah
103. 4:45there are so many more like you
104. 4:46absolutely I often tell people and our
105. 4:50tobin's Winfrey
106. 4:51there's thousands upon thousands of
107. 4:54Anthony Rea Hinton in prison in this
108. 4:57country and I've learned that if you
109. 5:00don't have the money to have decent
110. 5:02defense
111. 5:03yeah capital punishment in capital can I
112. 5:06can I just say this when when Gayle was
113. 5:08reading the book cuz I'm like really
114. 5:10bright and I feel that way about for
115. 5:14everybody who's watching us and kaskus
116. 5:16why do I like mr. Hinton so much I don't
117. 5:18really like mr. Hinton so much I said
118. 5:20it's the first time we've been reminded
119. 5:22if somebody was the spirit of Mandela
120. 5:24spent 27 years in prison and came out
121. 5:27with no anger and bitterness right and
122. 5:29Oprah thank you so much the Sun does
123. 5:30shine