Alabama death row inmate freed after 30 years behind bars

An Alabama man who was on death row has been freed from prison after nearly three decades.

CNN noted that Anthony Ray Hinton, 58, stood outside the Birmingham County jail on Friday morning and thanked God and his lawyers that he is now a free man.

"All they had to do was to test the gun, but when you think you're high and mighty and you're above the law, you don't have to answer to nobody," Hinton told reporters. "But I've got news for you -- everybody that played a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God."

The Columbus Dispatch noted that Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Laura Petro ordered that Hinton not be released after prosecutors decided not to retry him.

In 1985, when he was 29-years-old, he was convicted of fatally shooting two fast-food restaurant workers, John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason.

A new trial, however, was ordered last year after that conviction was overturned.

District Attorney John Bowers said they did not move forward with retrying Hinton because experts were unable to determine for certain the bullets used to kill the men came from his gun.

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