Indy Anna
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2010
- Messages
- 5,010
- Reaction score
- 26,793
< snipped >
Ray Hinton was 29 when he was arrested for two 1985 killings. Freed at age 58, with gray hair and a beard, he was embraced by his sobbing sisters, who said "Thank you, Jesus," as they wrapped their arms around him outside the Jefferson County Jail.
Hinton had won a new trial last year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that his trial counsel was inadequate. Prosecutors on Wednesday moved to drop the case after new ballistics tests contradicted those done three decades ago. Experts couldn't match crime scene bullets to a gun found in Hinton's home......
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that Hinton had "constitutionally deficient" representation at trial because his defense lawyer wrongly thought he had only $1,000 to hire a ballistics expert to rebut the state's case. The only expert willing to take the job at that price struggled so much under cross-examination that jurors chuckled at his responses.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/state-lacks-evidence-frees-man-30-years-death-30093821
Ray Hinton was 29 when he was arrested for two 1985 killings. Freed at age 58, with gray hair and a beard, he was embraced by his sobbing sisters, who said "Thank you, Jesus," as they wrapped their arms around him outside the Jefferson County Jail.
Hinton had won a new trial last year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that his trial counsel was inadequate. Prosecutors on Wednesday moved to drop the case after new ballistics tests contradicted those done three decades ago. Experts couldn't match crime scene bullets to a gun found in Hinton's home......
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that Hinton had "constitutionally deficient" representation at trial because his defense lawyer wrongly thought he had only $1,000 to hire a ballistics expert to rebut the state's case. The only expert willing to take the job at that price struggled so much under cross-examination that jurors chuckled at his responses.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/state-lacks-evidence-frees-man-30-years-death-30093821
