"Everybody that played a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God." — Anthony Ray Hinton

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.

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.

I was born with a mother who loved me unconditionally and with a sense of humor.

When you're poor and black in America, you stand a greater chance of going to prison for something you didn't do.