BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A man freed after nearly 30 years on Alabama’s death row said the people who played a part in his conviction will have to “answer to God.”
Ray Hinton was released from state custody Friday after prosecutors abandoned an effort to bring him to trial a second time.
Hinton was convicted in the 1985 slaying of two fast-food workers. The only evidence against him were bullets found at the crime scene. Prosecutors said a new analysis could not link the bullets to Hinton’s gun.
Defense lawyers had tried for nearly two decades to get the state to re-examine the ballistics evidence, arguing it would exonerate Hinton.
Lawyer Bryan Stevenson said Hinton’s conviction was a case study in what is wrong with the legal system.
Stevenson said Hinton encountered racial bias, was too poor to mount a rigorous defense, and was the victim of “bad science.”
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