“It’s really bad that it’s gone on this long without a final resolve on it, and I’ll take part of the responsibility for that.”
—Judge James Garrett, January 28, 2002
Phoebe, Lester’s mom, visited Ray after his mom died, and even though it wasn’t supposed to be allowed, the guards looked the other way as she put her arms around him and held him as he cried all over her shoulder. Lester kept clearing his throat and wiping at his eyes. Ray’s mom was also his mom, and he had taken care of her for almost twenty years. Ray had lost his mom, and Lester’s mom had lost her best friend.
“I want you to know something, Ray,” she said, patting him on the back like she used to do when he was a little boy. “One of us is always going to be here, until the very end. No matter what, one of us will always be here. Do you understand?”
Ray nodded and swallowed his tears. He was grateful to have them. How could he have survived this long without them?
“No matter what,” she said again, and then she kissed him one last time on the top of his head.
When she passed away a couple of years later, Lester and Ray cried together and then had a good laugh about how God was really in trouble now. There was going to be no sleep or peace in heaven until those two women got their way and God set Ray free.
Still no word from Judge Garrett. Bryan wrote letter after letter, filed brief after brief, and still nothing. After a year, Bryan decided that pressure from the public might be the only way to get the State to do the right thing, and he began contacting the media about his story.
November 19, 2003
Anthony Ray Hinton, Z-468 Holman State Prison Holman, 3700
Atmore, Alabama 36503
Dear Ray:
How are you? I hope you’re hanging in there. I wanted to update you on a couple of matters. Judge Garrett, as you know, has retired effective November 1. We heard that he would keep some cases and give others to different judges. While we can’t get any definite indication, it appears as if he intends to keep your case. Following the debate I had with Pryor, I pressed him for what he was willing to do. He has indicated that they won’t do anything but wait for Judge Garrett’s ruling. While this is disappointing, it’s not surprising.
Today, I’ve sent a letter to the chief deputy district attorney just so that we can represent to the press that these folks have had every opportunity to do the right thing. Our experts have similarly pressed the guy the State brought to your hearing from the Department of Forensic Sciences about doing something. No one appears to want to claim any responsibility, so we will have to put more pressure on them publicly.
I’m meeting with someone from the New York Times next week about an article, and I think we’ll also work with someone from a national magazine. 60 Minutes is supposed to call Pryor this week. I’m worried about them because they keep talking about the war with Iraq and are becoming somewhat vague on when they’ll actually do something. Anyway, I’m supposed to talk with them again on Friday.
I’ll be down to see you during the first week of December because we will likely need to facilitate some interviews between you and the Times reporter and the magazine reporter next month. I want to talk to you some about that before it begins. Things have been typically busy here, but we’re pressing on. I look forward to seeing you, my friend.
Sincerely,
Bryan A. Stevenson
Another nine months passed, and they still had no answer on his Rule 32 hearing. Bryan was frustrated, and Ray couldn’t imagine how Bryan managed, with so many lives depending on him. Ray kept telling him that if things didn’t turn out the way they wanted, he knew Bryan had done everything he could. Eventually, Bryan went straight to the source.
September 23, 2004
Judge James Garrett
c/o Anne-Marie Adams, Clerk Jefferson County Circuit Court
207 Criminal Justice Center
801 N. Richard Arrington, Jr. Blvd. Birmingham, AL 35203
Dear Judge Garrett:
I’m writing to inquire about the status of the Anthony Ray Hinton case. As you know, Mr. Hinton is on Alabama’s death row, although we maintain and have presented evidence that he is innocent and had nothing to do with these crimes. Over two years ago, we presented evidence in support of Mr. Hinton’s claim of factual innocence. I know that since that time you have retired, which is why I’m writing to determine the status of this case and whether you are still reviewing the case. We filed a renewed motion for a judgment granting relief on February 23, 2004, and we have not been able to confirm from the clerk’s office whether you received that pleading or our subsequent requests for a ruling.
While I appreciate that the length of time required in death penalty cases has been an issue for lots of people, we’re especially concerned about this case because we believe that the evidence clearly supports Mr. Hinton’s innocence and that he has now been wrongly held on Alabama’s death row for nineteen years.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could inform the parties of the case status or determine what, if any, other arrangements have been made for a resolution of this case. I’m sorry to disturb you with a letter of this sort, but I genuinely believe that Mr. Hinton is innocent and this case represents a terrible mistake.
I appreciate your consideration of this matter and sincerely hope that all is well with you.
Respectfully, Bryan A. Stevenson
Counsel for Anthony Ray Hinton
cc: James Houts, Assistant Attorney General Jon Hayden, Assistant Attorney General
J. Scott Vowell, Presiding Judge
Bryan sent Ray a letter at the end of January explaining that Judge Garrett had done absolutely nothing for two and a half years, then just signed the State’s proposed order. Ray read it aloud to the other guys. A couple of the guards stood in the hallway listening as well.
While it’s not surprising, it builds another layer into the worst example of corrupt, unjust administration of the death penalty anywhere. We knew not to expect much from him in terms of relief, but he didn’t have to unnecessarily take another two and a half years of your life for no good reason.
Garrett printed out the State’s order and changed the margins; I guess he thought that made it look better. But it appears word for word to be the State’s proposed order. I attach it even though I think we sent you the State’s order a couple of years ago. You may recall that we filed a lengthy response challenging the State’s proposed order, which I’m also resending in case you don’t have that anymore.
Bryan promised to forge ahead, and ended as usual, with support and encouragement.
We’ve called your family and Lester Bailey, and I’m sending stuff to our experts today, who I expect to be pretty outraged about this too. I’ll look to talk with you on Monday afternoon.
Hang in there.
Sincerely,
Bryan
P.S. Jerline got the package you sent and absolutely loves it! Thank you for doing that.
There it was, the ugly truth. The State would lie, cheat, steal, and stall to keep from admitting they were wrong about Ray. Evidence didn’t matter. Nothing seemed to matter. Bryan was furious and filed an appeal with the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. A hearing was scheduled, and Bryan had upped the ante involving Amnesty International, the local news, and the national news.
In August, George Sibley was executed. His last words were, “Everyone who is doing this to me is guilty of a murder.” Ray banged on the bars for him and said a prayer for George’s son. He wondered what it was like for that boy to have both his parents executed. It was too much for any person to carry.
In November 2005, a series of articles ran in the Birmingham News. Ray did an interview by telephone. The series of articles was about the death penalty, for and against. Bryan wrote the piece against, and as Ray read the article to the other guys on the row, he was proud to call Bryan not only his attorney, but his friend.
Ray read the article again and again. Next to it in the paper was an opposing opinion piece—pro death penalty—by the attorney general, Troy King. His basic argument was an eye for an eye, and Ray understood that. He had grown up with that in church. Justice demanded a life for a life. Retribution. The perpetrator should not live while the victim has no choice. People on death row had earned their spots on death row, and justice cannot be consumed with protecting the rights of the guilty. But the system didn’t know who was guilty. There was a moral difference between kidnapping and murdering a man, and imprisoning and executing a man. There was no moral equivalence, even when both things ended in death. But death had never deterred death. And guilt could not be certain without an admission of guilt. A person could believe in the death penalty and still believe it should be ended, because men are fallible and the justice system is fallible.
Ray believed that until the U.S. had a way of ensuring that innocent men are never executed—until the nation could account for the racism in its courts, prisons, and in its sentencing—the death penalty should be abolished. Let Troy King spend a decade or two in prison under a sentence of death as an innocent man and see what kind of opinion he writes then.
There was no humane way to execute any man.
And regardless of any law, no one had the right to execute an innocent man. One line in particular in the pro article struck him: “To be sure, the death sentence must never be carried out in a way that allows the innocent to die.” There was an irony there. If he believed that, why was he refusing to objectively look at the evidence of Ray’s innocence?
Bryan’s editorial was moving and impressive. Even the guards were reading pieces of it out loud. Ray didn’t know what was going to happen in appeals court, but he did know that he still had God’s best lawyer fighting for him.
On the day of the hearing, another article came out quoting both Ray and McGregor. He was still mad twenty years later that Ray had stared him down in the courtroom, and he also threatened that if Ray was released, he’d be “standing right outside the gate with a .38 and it won’t be an old one.” Ray hoped that quote would help prove his case to the appeals court. Two decades later and he was still saying, on the record, he was going to get Ray one way or another. Bryan seemed hopeful after the oral arguments.
November 30, 2005
Anthony Ray Hinton, Z-468 Holman State Prison Holman, 3700
Atmore, Alabama 36503
Dear Ray:
How are you, my friend? Last week, the State filed another pleading in your case following oral argument. It’s amazing that they now want to discuss the evidence in your case after saying for so many years everything is barred and defaulted. In any event, they have filed a motion to supplement their brief because I stressed the fact that the gun evidence exonerates you so much at oral argument, I think they are worried about that. I attach a copy of what they sent. We filed a response to their pleading yesterday, which is also enclosed with this letter. I think it’s good that they now feel some need to address the merits of these issues. The letters to the newspaper following the Birmingham News articles have all been good.
I’ll get copies of them to you as soon as we have them collected.
I’m really hoping that you’ve had your last Thanksgiving on death row. It’s always better to not get too optimistic when you are dealing with the Alabama justice system, but you deserve relief soon.
I’m going to try and get down before Christmas. The court issued a bunch of decisions in older cases last week, so we’ve been pretty busy. I hope you’re doing okay. All the best, my friend.
Sincerely,
Bryan Stevenson
Ray tried not to get too hopeful as they were waiting for the Court of Criminal Appeals. He kept as busy as possible and was grateful the guards let him spend much of the day in their break room. He would cook for them and counsel them on everything from money problems to marriage issues. It was pretty ironic that they came to Ray for advice when he had spent over two decades locked in a cell and cut off from the outside world. He also helped deliver meals to the guys on the row. It was a way to say hi to each of them, to look in their eyes and see if he saw signs that they were heading to the dark place they all knew too well.
He was doing what his mom wanted, he was in service to others. It got him through each day of each month until his visit with Lester.
At the end of June 2006, Ray got the news from Bryan: the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals had denied his appeal. They were now going to appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court. Ray went back to his cell and told the other guys. Jimmy seemed especially upset. Ray’s freedom was a cause that everyone on the row wanted to fight for. The newspaper articles had established his innocence in a way that was more real than anything he’d said over the years. No one doubted his innocence, and after Bryan’s article, Ray had told them all that when he got out, he was going to fight to end the death penalty. Ray had dreams where he spoke at colleges, in churches, around the country, and across the globe. He was going to tell his story so that this never happened to anyone else.
But first he had to be set free.
So in 2006, they were going to another court, one that Ray had appealed to back in 1989. It was like his case was bouncing around inside a State pinball machine. Circuit Court. Appeals Court. Supreme Court and back again. Over and over. Ray wasn’t upset, though—on the contrary, he was ecstatic. The ruling in the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals was 3–2. It was a ruling against him, but for the first time, two judges believed in his innocence.
Dissent was a beautiful thing. And it was all he had.