On April 7, the Goldfarb Center hosted a powerful conversation between Executive Director Kimberly Flowers, Student Executive Board member Halle Carroll, and Anthony Ray Hinton, an author, advocate, and speaker who found his voice after being convicted for a crime he didn’t commit. He served as Alabama’s longest serving death row prisoner in history. For over an hour, Mr. Hinton exposed the realities of a prejudiced criminal legal system in Alabama, sharing intimate memories of his family and life. The day he got arrested, he remembered, he was mowing the grass for his beloved mother. When two police officers arrived in his front yard with a warrant for his arrest, Hinton remembers pleading with them to tell his mother what was happening. That day, the officers informed Hinton of a hard truth, that even if he was innocent, which Hinton had told them multiple times, it did not matter. First, he was facing a white judge, jury, prosecutor, and victim. And, they said, even if it was not him, he should “take the rap for one of his homeboys.” It was clear to Mr. Hinton that in his case, all he was guilty of was being black in America, and that fact would be and was enough to convict him.
When Halle asked how to communicate the injustice of the legal system in America, Mr. Hinton suggested reading his own case. Indeed, Mr. Hinton’s struggle to get a fair trial with adequate legal representation proves his attorney, Bryan Stevenson, right when he maintained that, “our criminal justice system treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent.” If you would like to watch this powerful speaker again, you can visit the Goldfarb Website and YouTube channel, or read his book, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (2018).
Please note that the recorded video will be available to view until May 7, 2021; be sure to watch on the link below before that date!
