Alabama death row inmate to be freed after nearly 30 years

An Alabama inmate who spent nearly 30 years on death row will go free today after prosecutors told a judge there is not enough evidence to link him to the 1985 murders he was convicted of committing.
Judge Laura Petro yesterday dismissed the case against Anthony Ray Hinton. The district attorney's office in a Wednesday court filing said that forensic experts couldn't determine if six crime scene bullets which were the crux of the evidence against Hinton came from a gun investigators took from his home.
Hinton, now 58, was convicted of two 1985 murders that occurred during separate robberies of fast-food restaurants. Prosecutors linked Hinton to the killings through a .38-calibre revolver found at his house.

The US Supreme Court last year sent Hinton's case back for a potential new trial, which prompted a re-examination of the evidence.
"We've been hoping for this. We've believed that this should have happened," said Bryan Stevenson, Hinton's attorney and director of the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative. The Jefferson County District attorney's office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Stevenson has been arguing for 16 years that Hinton was innocent.

Hinton wept Wednesday night after learning the news that he would finally go free, Stevenson said.
Hinton is expected to be released from jail this morning after spending more than half his life in prison.

Six bullets were what prosecutors used in the 1980s to connect Hinton to the slayings. A modern analysis on the bullets is what led prosecutors to drop the case against him.
The Supreme Court last year ruled that Hinton had "constitutionally deficient" representation at his initial trial. Hinton's defence lawyer wrongly thought he had only USD 1,000 to hire a ballistics expert to try to rebut the prosecution testimony about the bullets.