Ex-inmate who spent 28 years in prison for murders he didn't commit goes viral for #VOTED sticker

An ex-convict exercises his right to vote after spending 28 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.

A former inmate who spent 28 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit finally gets his chance to vote. A photo of him with a voter’s sticker on his forehead has now gone viral.

A CONVICTION GONE WRONG

Anthony Hinton lost almost 30 years of his life serving time on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. In 2015, he was released from prison after it was discovered that the only evidence linking him to two 1985 murders was contradicted by new ballistics tests.

The crimes occurred during two separate robberies of fast food restaurants in Birmingham. Hinton was arrested after a survivor of a third robbery identified him in a photo lineup. This was odd since Hinton was at a grocery store warehouse 15 miles away at the time the murders took place.

The only evidence held against Hinton were bullets used in the crime scenes that matched a .38 caliber revolver Hinton’s mother owned. With a weak defense team, Hinton was convicted and sentenced to death row.

NOT HIS BULLETS

Sixteen years ago, Attorney Bryan Stevenson of Equal Justice Initiative appealed for Hinton’s case. He brought up evidence proving that the bullets in question didn’t come from Hinton’s mother’s gun. Hinton was later proven guilty though half his life was already wasted in prison.

FINALLY EXERCISING HIS RIGHT TO VOTE

Now that he’s free, Hinton delights in finally exercising his right to vote, a privilege he lost while he was serving time. He was the first in line at the midterm election polls arriving even before the doors opened. A photo of him smiling and wearing a voter’s sticker on his forehead was tweeted by Equal Justice Initiative and has since been retweeted and liked thousands of times. The tweet was accompanied by a caption that read,

“For 30 years, Mr. Hinton was stripped of all his rights while he sat on Alabama death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Today, he arrived at the polls at 7am and exercised his right to vote.”

THE CASE OF THE WRONG OWNER OF A WATCH

Cases like Hinton’s isn’t isolated. In fact, there are a number of convictions in the past that were proven wrong. For instance, Horace Roberts was convicted in 1998 for allegedly murdering his lover. The evidence that linked the crime to him was a watch found next to the victim’s body. It was later proven that the watch belonged not to Roberts but to a family member of the victim who had a motive for killing her. Roberts served two decades in prison before he was finally released after he was deemed innocent.

THE CASE OF THE TWO LOOKALIKES

Meanwhile, a man was wrongly convicted for a crime another man who looks exactly like him committed. Richard Jones served 17 years in prison before it was discovered another man that closely resembled him was the real criminal. Jones saw his doppelganger Ricky Amos inside the same penitentiary he was booked in. He knew instantly he was the man police might have mistaken him for. Jones was charged for aggravated robbery and sentenced to 19 years even if he didn't have a tattoo which a witness claimed the suspect had. It was only upon hearing about his lookalike in prison that he realized why he was identified by the eyewitness. Jones was later released.