Alabama Has Highest Number of Death Row Inmates Per Capita

Rachel Osier Lindley | June 11, 2015

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For 30 years Anthony Ray Hinton lived down the hall from “Yellow Mama,” the Alabama electric chair that, for decades, carried out the state’s executions before being decommissioned in 2002 and put in the attic at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

Hinton, a black man from Birmingham, watched as 23 men went to go meet “Mama” during his time on death row at Holman. For 30 years, he sat in his cell and wondered when he would be called to meet “Mama” while he tried to prove his innocence in a state that, historically, had only exonerated four death row inmates. – Cody Owens, WELD, “Death Down The Hall“

Anthony Ray Hinton was on death row in Alabama for 30 years, sentenced to death in 1985 for murder. Hinton maintained he was not guilty, and in April he was released after reexamined ballistic evidence raised troubling questions about his conviction.

Hinton was the 152 person released from death row in the United States since 1983. His story moved Alabamians and people across the nation. Some were unable to comprehend how someone person could be on death row for three decades given unreliable evidence.

For more on the state of the death penalty in Alabama, WBHM’s Rachel Osier Lindley spoke to Nick Patterson, editor of the weekly newspaper WELD. WELD’s cover story this week examines why Alabama has more inmates on death row per capita than any other state. Patterson joins us during All Things Considered most Thursdays.