A Sunday Seminar...
Last Sunday I went and watched Anthony Ray Hinton's seminar with one of my friends. Hinton had spent thirty years on death row for a crime he did not commit. He was convicted of two murders because the state claimed that the bullets used in the murders matched his mother's revolver. Hinton had alibis for both cases and there were no witnesses or any other evidence to link him to the crimes, but he was still found guilty. Hinton stated that for the first few years he didn't speak a single word; he was so full of anger and hatred that he didn't speak. Then one night he overheard a man in the neighboring cell crying and he reached out and tried to help by making him laugh. Ray said that was the night he realized he couldn't lose himself and that he had to try to hold on to his joy.
Ray's story is truly eye opening, because most people do not realize how broken our criminal justice system is. Even with no evidence at all to connect Ray to the crime, he was still convicted and sentenced to death. The death penalty is a tricky thing because once you get sentenced to it, there is very little chance of the case being reexamined. Ray and his attorney, Bryan Stevenson, have worked tirelessly for years to get his case appealed and it finally was a few years ago. After all of this hell Ray was forced to undergo, he now walks a free man and is telling his story across the country. Ray stated that after he was released no one had the decency to apologize to him for taking away thirty years of his life.
I might major in criminal justice, so this seminar was amazing to go see because of how honest it was about the current system. I am glad that I was able to listen this this man's amazing story and I wish him the best. To conclude, our criminal justice system is extremely flawed and it leads to innocent people being punished all the time. If you want to help change this, then you need to vote in elections and have your voice heard or everything will continue to remain the same. I will leave you with a quote from Anthony Ray Hinton himself,
"They tell you justice is blind. I am telling you that justice can see."
