BUFFALO, NY - Canisius University welcomes Anthony Ray Hinton to campus on Tuesday, December 3 at 7:00 p.m. in the Montante Cultural Center. Anthony Ray Hinton is a survivor of Alabama's death row and a New York Times best-selling author. The event, sponsored by the William H. Fitzpatrick Institute of Public Affairs and Leadership, is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Hinton’s story is a decades-long journey to exoneration and freedom. In 1985, he was convicted of the unsolved murders of two fast-food restaurant managers based on the testimony of ballistics experts for the state who claimed that the crime bullets came from a dusty revolver found in his mother’s closet. Without the benefit of a competent expert to challenge the state’s theory (Hinton’s lawyer hired a ballistics expert who was blind in one eye), an all-white jury convicted him and he was sentenced to death.
After years of petitioning to have the revolver re-analyzed, three independent experts concluded that the bullets could not have been fired from his mother’s revolver. With the assistance of the Equal Justice Initiative, led by attorney Bryan Stevenson, Hinton was freed in 2015. Since his release, he has traveled the world sharing his story and discussing the changes that need to be made in order to prevent similar injustices from happening to other people. In 2018, Hinton published The Sun Does Shine, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and is a New York Times best seller.
For additional information, contact the Office of College Communications at (716) 888-2790.
One of 27 Jesuit universities in the nation, Canisius is the premier private university in Western New York. Canisius celebrates its sesquicentennial anniversary during the 2019-20 academic year, marking 150 years of Jesuit education and leadership in the city of Buffalo and Western New York. Visit www.canisius.edu/150 for more information about Canisius’ milestones and celebratory events.
