for 30 years Anthony Ray Hinton was a dead man walking thank you J thank you Lord prosecution seemed deemed to take my life from me 58 years old Hinton lived more than half his life inside a cage home and Correctional Facility in Southern Alabama today he's seeing and experiencing things for the first time in decades oh my goodness so he is welcomed home a party in his honor hosted by the Equal justice initiative led by attorney Brian Stevenson and his team of attorneys who fought for decades to win hinton's Freedom thank you for giving me my life back just being here as a team you can say that you got an inome man off there his nightmare began in 1985 Ronald Reagan was President back to the the future was a box office hit and under the cover of darkness two Birmingham restaurant managers were shot dead at closing time just months apart a third victim another man who survived the shooting and helped identify 29-year-old Anthony Ray Hinton as the killer you're a free man now what does that mean to you it mean everything I mean uh you never think about your freedom until it's taken away from you you couldn't put a price tag on it my all the back already so much about the world has changed but the greatest still is a world without his mother she died while he was locked away it don't get no lower for me I'm not a shame of I'm proud of That's The Bu that love of my life he goes back to the home they share together now a band kind of hate to see it in this shape it's his first time there since the night it was all taken away this is the room where hinton's mother kept her 38 caliber revolver police said it was the murder weapon hinton's court appointed public defender hired a supposed ballistics expert to dispute the prosecution's claim about the murder weapon a persuasive expert he was not so his ballistics expert was blind in one eye yes that's correct he had to ask how to turn on the machine he couldn't see it he had to ask somebody please help me so when he put him on the stand as my witness they Cru ified him I said they going to find me guilty Hinton was sentenced to death He was ordered to spend the remainder of his life in prison living inside a 5 by7 cell pretty much sleep in a fetal position because you feet hang over the bed you only have a bed that is mounted to the wall on a toilet and that's what I lived in for 30 years they took my 30s my 40 my 50 but what they couldn't take was my joy I couldn't do a thing about the years but I could control my joy 53 inmates were executed at Holman while Hinton was on death row my Dogers M with being seen so many people that I got to know be executed he languished in prison for years before his case reached appeals court I was had never been so convinced of someone's innocence than I had in Mr hinton's Case no one asked them judge suel CA was one of those appell at court judges who believed his story there was no incriminating evidence he didn't have anything from the robbery there were no fingerprints this is extremely unusual his appeal was denied but his team kept fighting we had exhausted every state court appeal and it was the United States Supreme Court that finally intervene the result was a new trial the break Hinton had been waiting for but just a few weeks ago the state of Alabama dropped the case after a new look of the evidence could not match the bullets to the gun and Hinton was released since I've been locked up for 30 years and finances is tight a slight I don't sense any bitterness why is that bitterness kills the soul I cannot hate because my bible teach me not to hate I've seen hate at is worse what would it profit me to hate I want you to know there is a God he sit high but he looks low Lord he will destroy but yet he will defend and he defend me e