Former death row prisoner Anthony Ray Hinton shares his path to freedom and forgiveness

Anthony Ray Hinton was sentenced to death and held in solitary confinement for 28 years on Alabama’s death row before he was exonerated in 2015. Join Washington Post senior critic-at-large Robin Givhan for a conversation with Hinton about the young readers edition of his book, “The Sun Does Shine,” in which he shares his long road to freedom and forgiveness.

Highlights

“We have a system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty opposed to if you poor and innocent. I was poor and innocent, and I just happened to be born in the state of Alabama where it is in my honest opinion one of the hardest places to prove your innocence if you don’t have the money to hire a decent defense.” – Anthony Ray Hinton (Video: Washington Post Live)

“When I got convicted, I truly believe that my mother tried to protect me as well as I tried to protect my mother. Every time I would talk to my mother, she would just ask me, ‘When are they going to let you come home?’ And I would lie to her, and I would say, ‘Mama, they working on it.’” – Anthony Ray Hinton (Video: Washington Post Live)

“Forgiveness is not about the state of Alabama. Forgiveness is about me. Forgiveness is not a sign of weakness. Forgiveness is a sign of strength… As a person of faith, as a person that loves people, a person that has compassion for another human beings, I have to forgive. I have no choice.” – Anthony Ray Hinton (Video: Washington Post Live)

“I’m trying my best to rally up the troops, and when I say ‘the troops,’ I’m trying to rally the good people of America and say, ‘Hey, we are better than this. We need to come together and have an open and honest conversation about race in America.’ And perhaps we can solve a lot of problems if we have the courage to have an open and honest conversation.” – Anthony Ray Hinton (Video: Washington Post Live)

Anthony Ray Hinton

Author, “The Sun Does Shine”