Hinton was convicted and sentenced to death. With no credible expert to challenge the State’s assertion of a match, Mr. Instead, he retained a visually-impaired civil engineer with no expertise in firearms identification who admitted he could not operate the machinery necessary to examine the evidence. Hinton was appointed a lawyer who mistakenly thought he could not get enough money to hire a qualified firearms examiner. A polygraph test given by police exonerated him, but the judge (now-retired Circuit Judge James Garrett) refused to admit it at trial. Hinton to the Davidson and Vason murders.Īnthony Hinton, 29 years old with no history of violent crime, steadfastly maintained his innocence. Hinton’s gun and the bullets from all three crimes was the only evidence linking Mr. Hinton was guilty and “evil” solely from his appearance-told the court that the State’s experts’ asserted match between Mrs. The prosecutor-who had a documented history of racial bias and said he could tell Mr. Hinton’s mother, and state firearm examiners said that was the gun used in all three crimes. Police seized an old revolver belonging to Mr. Anthony Hinton was arrested after the manager identified him from a photo lineup, even though he was working in a locked warehouse fifteen miles away at the time of the crime.

On July 25, 1985, a restaurant in Bessemer was robbed and the manager was shot but not seriously wounded. There were no eyewitnesses or fingerprint evidence police had no suspects and pressure to solve the murders grew as similar crimes continued. In 1985, two Birmingham area fast-food restaurants were robbed and the managers, John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason, were fatally shot.

Anthony ray hinton the sun does shine