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Bitterness kills the soul.
Anthony Ray Hinton
The state of Alabama can take my freedom, the state of Alabama can take my future, but the state of Alabama cannot take my joy.
I have no respect for the prosecutors, the judges. And I say that not with malice in my heart. I say it because they took 30 years from me.
America should be ashamed to say they have the best justice system in the world when, every day, race plays a part in who goes to prison, who don't go to prison.
I've often thought books give you - put you in a world that you never thought you could go. And I often would say, I don't need to go to California. Give me a book that talks about California. And I can put it in my head and imagine what it looked like.
To me, America need to clean up their own home before they tell another country about human rights. I'm a primary example. America don't care nothing about human rights.
I witnessed other inmates' time run out, and I'd be lying if I said you don't ask yourself, 'Wow, is that going to happen to me?'
I'm just trying to be a little tiny light in God's world.
You never think of your freedom until it's taken away from you, and once it's taken... So, it means everything to me. You couldn't put a price tag on it.
Death row was the only place where I never witnessed racism. We all went to bed with a death sentence on our heads and woke up that way. We had to become each other's support system.
I hope that America will do away with the death penalty. I truly believe we are better than that.
Being on death row has taken so much from me as a human being.
When every court was saying 'no', I believe God was still saying yes. I had to somehow find that faith and reach deep down in my soul and believe in the teaching that my mother taught me as a young boy, that God can do everything but fail.
I have a good sense of humour, and that's what kept me for the 30 years I was locked up.
Believe me, when you're sitting on death row, you want the appeal process to take time; as long as you're going through it, you're going to be alive.
There was a time I thought I'd never see the sun again.
I loved to read books in the free world, and there was a lot of time to sit around and do nothing in prison. When you read, it opens up your mind; it helped us take our minds away from where we were.
I forgive because not to forgive would only hurt me.
The last time I saw my mom was in 1997. My mom started getting sick, and my mom finally passed away in 2002. My mom was my world. My mom was everything to me. We didn't have money. We didn't have a whole lot of materialistic things, but one thing I can truly say, that my mother loved me and all of her children unconditionally.
What do you say to a person who is going to their death? Normally, we would just say, 'Hang in there, keep your hope up', because there is hope until the very last second.
I'm really trying to bring an end to the death penalty because it means so much to me.
I believe in laughter. I believe laughter is good for the soul. I believe in making other people laugh to make them feel good.
I often say that if I had one wish in this world, I would wish that every child could have a mother the way my mother were. And I never went without clothes, I never went without food... I never went without anything that a child needs. But above all of that, she gave me unconditional love.
Everybody that played a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God.
I have too much to live for to allow a bunch of cowards to take my joy. I refuse to give them my joy.
I cannot hate, because my Bible teaches me not to hate.
Death Row is the same every day - breakfast at 3 A.M., lunch at 10 A.M., dinner at 3 P.M.
I am a joyful person.
I just didn't believe the God that I served would allow me to die for something I didn't do.
When the very people that you been taught to believe in - the police, the D.A., these are the people that are supposed to stand for justice - and when you know that they lied to you, it's hard for you to have trust in anybody.
I want people to realize that we can teach hate, but we also can teach love.
I went to Paris, I went to France, I went to England, I went to Ireland. In my mind, I can go wherever I wanted to go. I left death row every day.
On September 22, 2002, my mama, Buhlar Hinton, died. When the guards told me, I gave up. She'd been deteriorating for a long time - I believe she died of a broken heart.
I shouldn't have sat on death row 30 years. All they had to do was test the gun. But when you think you are high and mighty and you're above the law, you don't have to answer to nobody, but I've got news for you.
Being able to control your mind is a beautiful thing.
For 30 years, I lived in pure hell.
Spending your days waiting to die is no way to live.
The State of Alabama let me down tremendously.
When I went to prison, for three years I didn't say a word to another human being until, going into the fourth year, when I realized, 'You know what, I have to find a way to live.'
Justice should be one of the things that's colorblind.
Hatred is nothing but a form of cancer, and it will eat you up.
They took my 30s, my 40s, my 50s, but what they couldn't take was my joy. I couldn't do nothing about the years, but I could control my joy... I kept a smile on my face; I kept love in my heart.
When you're poor and black in America, you stand a greater chance of going to prison for something you didn't do.
Being in a five-by-seven every day for 365 days a year is more than what the average man could stand. You weren't built to be in a cage that long.
It's hard to explain exactly what it feels like to be judged. There's a shame to it. Even when you know you're innocent. It still feels like you are coated in something dirty and evil.
You get to know everyone on death row. You become friends with them and their families. I met some great guys. Everyone regrets what they did.
A white man of authority don't ever want to admit to someone of colour they was wrong.
The men on death row had been told the world would be better without them. I tried to say that this may not be where we want to be, but let's do what we can for one another.
When it seems like the whole world thinks you're bad, it's hard to hang on to your goodness.
It took me a little while to remember how to use a fork. You know, we don't use forks in the penitentiary. You get a spoon.
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