Community Forum:
Anthony Ray Hinton Answers Probing Questions About Injustice “What would you do if they arrested you for a crime you didn’t commit? If you passed a polygraph but no one believed you....” On Monday, April 1 at 7:00 p.m., our Community Forum speaker will be Anthony Ray Hinton, who will focus on these issues. A man wrongly convicted of the 1985 murders of two fast food restaurant managers in Birmingham, Alabama, Hinton was sentenced to death and held on death row for nearly 30 years. One murder had taken place while Hinton was working the night shift at a local warehouse, and therefore had an alibi. Yet the state won a death sentence, based on two bullets it falsely claimed matched a gun found at his mother’s home. In an Equal Justice Initiative appeal in 2015, the prosecution was unable to affirm the forensic evidence of a gun that had been the only evidence in the first trial. Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned Hinton’s conviction on appeal, and the state dropped all charges against him. In his powerful new memoir, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, Hinton describes how racism and a system stacked against the poor were the driving forces behind his conviction. He also writes about the unique and unexpected bonds that can form while on death row, in particular his relationship with Henry Hays, a former Klansman sentenced to death for a notorious lynching.
JOIN US: Monday, April 1, 7:00 p.m. FREE. No reservations necessary.
Welcome to Our New Members
Frank and Dottie Bowen Drexel Hill
Jeffrey and Shelley Smallwood Wayne
Want to know more about BMPC? We invite you to get to know our community better by becoming a part of our Discover BMPC classes on Mondays, March 4 and March 11. Childcare is available for this opportunity to learn about our denomination, our Reformed tradition, and our sense of Christian ministry. For more information, to register, or to inquire about joining our church on our next New Member Sunday, March 17, contact JaneWilber@bmpc.org.
MESSENGER | Lent/Easter 2019 | 3