The Sun Does Shine
Anthony Ray Hinton spent 30 years of his life on death row, for a crime he didn't commit, as all the existing alibis, polygraph test and misfit between the gun and the shot suggested. Still, he was a victim of a legal system that doesn't favor those with no money and who are black.
After 3 years of rage, anger, and silence, Ray offers empathetic words to an inmate crying after his mother passed away. At that moment, Ray decides to live his life under a death sentence, without ever giving up on his innocence. During the next decades, he spends his time discussing books with other inmates in his founded book club, living an alternative reality in his mind and fighting over his innocence within a biased system.
After the failed attempts of several state lawers, Anthony Ray writes to Bryan Stevenson, an American lawyer and social justice activist, who agrees on helping prove his innocence. Through endless approaches, Ray is granted a new trial after the case was taken to the Supreme Court of Alabama and all charges were drop. In 2014, he leaves the place where a third of his life was spent.
In his book "The Sun Does Shine", Ray mentions that 1 in 10 people who are on death row are innocent and he argues that the death penalty shouldn't ever be considered. A proof of light, hope, and freedom, of a man who didn't get to see the light for 30 years. A man who was considered guilty by a system that is more guilty than any other.
“Hope was a choice. Faith was a choice. And more than anything else, love was a choice. Compassion was a choice.”