"Alabama man freed after nearly 30 years on death row" Associated Press April 04, 2015
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A man who spent nearly 30 years on Alabama’s death row was freed Friday after prosecutors finally acknowledged that the only evidence they had against him could not prove he committed the crime.
I know there is some compensation likely somewhere, but you can't give a person back time.
Ray Hinton, 58, walked out of Jefferson County Jail and hugged his tearful family members. ‘‘I shouldn’t have sat on death row for 30 years,’’ he told reporters. ‘‘All they had to do was test the gun.’’
Please don't call into question the dispensation of AmeriKan justice all these years. Cops are heroes, do good job.
Hinton was convicted of the 1985 murders of two Birmingham fast-food restaurant managers. Crime scene bullets were the only evidence linking him to the crime.
The US Supreme Court ruled last year that Hinton had ‘‘constitutionally deficient’’ representation at his initial trial because Hinton’s defense lawyer wrongly thought he had only $1,000 to hire a ballistics expert to try to rebut the prosecution testimony about the bullets.
The only defense expert willing to take the job at that price struggled so much to answer questions on cross-examination that jurors chuckled at his responses.
Never a good sign.
Attorney Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative said he independently retested the gun believed to be used by Hinton, and proved the bullets were not a match.
‘‘He was convicted because he was poor,’’ Stevenson said.
Hey, that's AmeriKan JU$Tus!
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Oh, right, he was black, too. Agenda pushed, thank you, does have a point to a certain degree.
Also see: Running From Alabama
Globe got a lot more mileage out of that.
