At 58, Hinton had spent half his life in solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit.
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Hinton was convicted of two separate killings of Birmingham restaurant workers — the Feb. 25, 1985, slaying of John Davidson, and the July 2, 1985, killing of Thomas Vason — even though there were no eyewitnesses linking Hinton to the crimes, no fingerprints linking him to the scene, and no other physical evidence except for the questionable link between a set of bullets and a gun found in Hinton’s home.
For years, Hinton’s lawyers have questioned whether the bullets could be conclusively linked to the weapon. The gun belonged to Hinton’s mother, with whom he shared a home.
Subsequent tests of the only physical evidence in the case raised serious doubts about whether the weapon in Hinton’s home had fired those bullets — and it even called into question whether the bullets were all fired from the same gun.
The ballistic evidence combined with eyewitness testimony from someone who was present at a similar crime that Hinton was never charged with comprised the entirety of the state’s case against him.
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Alabama inmate free after three decades on death row. How the case against him unraveled. - The Washington Post
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According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Hinton is the 152nd person exonerated from death row since 1973 and the sixth in Alabama.
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"We have a system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty then if you are poor and innocent and this case proves it. We have a system that is compromised by racial bias and this case proves it. We have a system that doesn't do the right thing when the right thing is apparent," Stevenson said.
"Prosecutors should have done this testing years ago."
The Alabama attorney general's office declined to comment.
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Prosecutors Will 'Answer To God' For Putting Innocent Man On Death Row
This innocent man could have been put to death as well as many others. The only deterrent is to remove protection from prosecution of law enforcement officials. How do people who believe in the death penalty sleep at night knowing that many innocent Hintons are behind bars waiting to be murdered by the state?
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