A man on Alabama’s death row for almost 30 years will be freed tomorrow Friday, April 3, after a judge dismissed the case. Prosecutors say the evidence that tied the man to two murders is not reliable.
Anthony Ray Hinton was convicted and sentenced to death for killing two managers at Birmingham fast-food restaurants during two separate robberies in 1985. His conviction largely rested on eyewitness testimony from a survivor and six bullets found at the crime scenes linked to a gun found in Hinton’s home. But after new testing this year, prosecutors found they could no longer conclusively say those bullets came from that gun.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted Hinton a new trial last year, saying he had an inadequate defense. That’s because his lawyer used a low-cost ballistics expert who was easily discredited on cross-examination.