As part of Black History Month, Anthony Ray Hinton, who survived for 30 years on Alabama’s death row, will be sharing his incredible journey and shedding light on reforming a flawed justice system.
Rosie Bolen, Ph.D., a member of Gettysburg’s Interfaith Center for Justice and Peace, is inviting the community to attend this powerful event, which will take place at Mount St. Mary’s University Knott Auditorium on Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 6:30 pm.
Anthony Ray Hinton’s story is a decades-long journey to exoneration and freedom. In 1985, Mr. Hinton was convicted of the unsolved murders of two fast-food restaurant managers based on the testimony of ballistics experts for the State who claimed that the crime bullets came from a dusty revolver found in Mr. Hinton’s mother’s closet. Without the benefit of a competent expert to challenge the State’s theory (Mr. Hinton’s lawyer hired a ballistics expert who was blind in one eye), an all-white jury convicted Mr. Hinton and he was sentenced to death. After years of petitioning to have the revolver re-analyzed, three independent experts concluded that the bullets could not have been fired from his mother’s revolver. With the assistance of the Equal Justice Initiative, led by attorney Bryan Stevenson, Mr. Hinton was freed in 2015.
Since his release, Mr. Hinton has traveled the world sharing his story and discussing the changes that need to be made to prevent similar injustices from happening to other people. In 2018, Mr. Hinton published The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and is a New York Times bestseller. In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Bonaventure University.
This event, co-sponsored by Mount St. Mary’s University and the Catholic Mobilizing Network, is free and open to the public. For more information and to register to attend, please visit www.msmary.edu/hinton. If you need accommodations to attend this event, please email dei@msmary.edu.