Innocent Man Freed After 30 Years On Death Row (Picture, Video)

Anthony Ray Hinton, one of the longest serving death row prisoners in Alabama history and among the longest serving condemned prisoners to be freed after presenting evidence of innocence, will be released tomorrow after Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Laura Petro granted the State’s motion to dismiss the charges against him.

Mr. Hinton spent 30 years on death row for a crime he did not commit.

Thirty years ago, Mr. Hinton was arrested and charged with two capital murders based solely on the assertion that a revolver taken from his mother’s home was the gun used in both murders and in a third uncharged crime. EJI attorneys engaged three of the nation’s top firearms examiners who testified in 2002 that the revolver could not be matched to crime evidence. State prosecutors never questioned the new findings but nontheless refused to re-examine the case or concede error. After another 12 years of litigation, the United States Supreme Court reversed lower court rulings in 2014, and Judge Petro granted him a new trial. She entered an Order of Nolle Prosequi today after the State informed the court that forensic scientists with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences have tested the evidence and confirmed the prior testing which revealed the crime bullets cannot be matched to the Hinton weapon.

After 30 years in custody for crimes he did not commit, Mr. Hinton’s release is bittersweet. “We are thrilled that Mr. Hinton will finally be released because he has unnecessarily spent years on Alabama’s death row when evidence of his innocence was clearly presented,” said his lead attorney, Bryan Stevenson. “The refusal of state prosecutors to re-examine this case despite persuasive and reliable evidence of innocence is disappointing and troubling.”  MOREHERE