"I want to be a light for people:" Former death row inmate Anthony Ray Hinton on new children's book
CBSN
Former death row inmate Anthony Ray Hinton, who was exonerated in 2015 after spending nearly 30 years behind bars in Alabama, says he has forgiven the state for its decades-long injustice. Since being released, Hinton says he hopes his life story serves as inspiration to others – particularly young people who "have no hope."
"I don't think you can get any lower than where I was: On death row for a crime you didn't commit sitting in solitary confinement for 30 years," he told "CBS Mornings" on Tuesday. "If I can hold onto hope and come out and try to be the person that I know that I am inside, I want them to know that they can do the same thing."
In his latest book, "The Sun Does Shine," adapted for young readers between the ages 10 and 14, Hinton details his journey toward finding joy and hope again after his experience in prison.
Growing up on 13th Avenue in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, in the 1940s and '50s, Anthony "Tony" Fauci was the precocious son of the corner pharmacist. "They called him Doc," he said. "The pharmacist back then served as the neighborhood psychiatrist, marriage counselor. So, it was serving the community."
Matt Katz is a lifelong Mets fan. Playing ball with his son, Reuben, is what Father's Day memories are made of. But growing up, Matt's experience of Father's Day was about as complicated as a triple play. "Did my birth father like baseball? Does he like baseball?" Katz asked. "And because I had for many years no contact with my birth father, I would wonder about little things like that."
A Missouri woman who spent more than 43 years in prison for a murder her attorneys argue was committed by a now-discredited police officer could soon be released after a judge overturned the conviction. If released, Sandra Hemme's prison term will mark the longest known wrongful conviction of a woman in U.S. history, her attorneys said.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday pledged America's full support in backing Ukraine and global efforts to achieve "a just and lasting peace" in the face of Russia's invasion, representing the United States at an international gathering on the war and meeting with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss his country's vision for ending it.