An Alabama man was freed on Good Friday after spending 28 years in prison for crimes he didn't commit.
Anthony Ray Hinton proclaimed his innocence for decades, and was released after newly tested ballistics evidence exonerated him.
Hinton was convicted for robberies at Mrs. Winner's and Captain D's restaurants in Birmingham in 1985, and the murder of employees John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason.
A third robbery victim picked Hinton out of a photo lineup, and state experts said the ballistics matched a .38-caliber revolver owned by Hinton's mother.
Defense attorneys said the ballistics were not a match, but the state refused to reexamine the evidence. Hinton's attorney mistakenly believed he had only $1,000 to obtain his own ballistics expert, and hired a poorly qualified civil engineer who did not withstand cross-examination.
The US Supreme Court found the defense constitutionally deficient last year, and ordered a new trial. Ballistics testing conducted in preparation for the trial found that the gun was not a match. The charges were dismissed on Wednesday.
Equal Justice Initiative director Bryan Stevenson, who fought for Hinton's release for 16 years, said that the case was a miscarriage of justice
"We have a system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent and this case proves it," he insisted.
"We have a system that is compromised by racial bias and this case proves it. We have a system that doesn't do the right thing when the right thing is apparent.
"Prosecutors should have done this testing years ago."
Hinton also admonished those responsible for his conviction.
"When you think you are high and mighty and you are above the law, you don't have to answer to nobody," he said outside the prison. "But I got news for them, everybody who played a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God."
