FREE AT LAST

FREE AT LAST!
An Alabama man freed after spending nearly 30 years on death row.

Anthony Ray Hinton, 58, was convicted of murdering two restaurant managers in Birmingham in 1985, but was
granted a new trial last year.
Tests on bullets found at the crime scene could not be connected to a gun found at Mr Hinton's home, prompting prosecutors to drop the case.

His lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, said his client was convictedbecause he could not afford better legal counsel.
Walking out of the Jefferson Country Jail in Birmingham,
Mr Hinton hugged family members and said: "THANK YOU JESUS."

"All they had to do was test the gun," Mr Hinton said, explaining why he shouldn't have had to sit on death row
for nearly three decades.
Bullets from the crime scene were the only evidence that
linked Mr Hinton to the murders.
Prosecutors said that modern forensic methods failed to
link the bullets to a revolver found in Mr Hinton's home.
"Every day, every month, every year that the state took
from him, they took something that they don't have the
power to give back," said Mr Stevenson.
At his first trial, Mr Hinton's lawyer believed his client only
had $1,000 (£670) to hire an expert that could defend
against the prosecution's allegations about the bullets.
The lawyer hired the only expert willing to take the job at
that rate, and jurors reportedly laughed as the expert
struggled to answer questions during cross-examination.
The US Supreme Court ruled last year that Mr Hinton did
not have adequate legal counsel at the first trial and said
the case should be reconsidered at a second trial.

"Race, poverty, inadequate legal assistance, and
prosecutorial indifference to innocence conspired to create
a textbook example of injustice," Bryan Stevenson, the
group's executive director and Hinton's lead attorney, said
of his African-American client. "I can't think of a case that
more urgently dramatizes the need for reform than what
has happened to Anthony Ray Hinton."

Hinton was accompanied Friday by two of his sisters, one
of whom still lives in the Birmingham area. Other siblings
will fly to the area to see him soon, Stevenson said.
His mother, with whom he lived at the time of his arrest, is
no longer living, according to the lawyer.
Hinton planned to spend at least this weekend at the home
of a close friend. He will meet with his attorneys Monday
to start planning for his immediate needs, such as
obtaining identification and getting a health checkup,
Stevenson said.
The plan now is to spend a few weeks to get oriented with
freedom and "sort out what he wants to do," Stevenson
said.