“I don’t care whether you did or didn’t do it. I’m going to make sure you’re found guilty.”

These were the words that Anthony Ray Hinton says put him on Alabama’s death row for nearly 3 decades for a murder he didn’t commit. In 2015, after numerous appeals, he was released after the US Supreme Court vacated the charges, and the State of Alabama dropped the case.

Mr. Hinton is author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row.” His story recounts his harrowing decades on death row, and his intention to make choices for compassion and joy in the midst of the chaos of prison life, spending 23 hours every day in a 5 x 7 cell, and watching 54 individuals pass his cell on their way to the death chamber.

“You can sit in that cell and be angry with the world,” he says, “or you can sit in that cell and try to find peace and joy. But you can't say you don't have a choice.”

Similar episodes:

Pervis Payne: The Death Penalty

The Architect of the American Civil Rights Movement: James Lawson

Eddie Glaude: On James Baldwin’s America

Jameel McGee and Andrew Collins: Dirty Cop, False Arrest, and Unexpected Consequences

Resources mentioned this episode:

The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton

The Sun Does Shine (Young Readers Edition) by Anthony Ray Hinton

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

PDF of Lee’s Interview Notes

Transcription Link

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