FranklinIs Connected

Calendar of Events

Looking for things to do, events in Franklin, Brentwood or Williamson County.  Maybe fun things for the family, kid events, date night or activities near you.  Check out our calendar of events below.

Loading Events
  • This event has passed.

Shining Light on Wrongful Convictions with Exoneree Anthony Ray Hinton

August 31, 2021 @ 5:30 pm

Shining Light on Wrongful Convictions with Exoneree Anthony Ray Hinton

Tuesday, Aug 31st, 2021, at 5:30PM

Montgomery Bell Academy and the Tennessee Innocence Project present an evening with Anthony Ray Hinton.

The event will include a 45-minute presentation in which Mr. Hinton will share his decades-long journey to exoneration and freedom, followed by a 15-minute question & answer session. General admission to the presentation is open and free to the public.

As a ‘Friends of Freedom’ ticket holder or sponsor, individuals will receive reserved priority seating for the presentation and a copy of Mr. Hinton’s memoir, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row. You will then join Mr. Hinton for a book signing and cocktail reception following the event.

Meet our speaker: Anthony Ray Hinton survived for 30 years on Alabama’s death row. His story is a decades-long journey to exoneration and freedom. In 1985, Mr. Hinton 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 Mr. Hinton’s mother’s closet. Without the benefit of a competent expert to challenge the State’s theory (Mr. Hinton’s lawyer hired a ballistics expert who was blind in one eye), an all-white jury convicted Mr. Hinton 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, Mr. Hinton was freed in 2015. Since his release, Mr. Hinton has traveled the world sharing his story and discussing the changes that need to be made to prevent similar injustices from happening to other people. In 2018, Mr. Hinton published The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and is a New York Timesbestseller. In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Bonaventure University.

Parking is available in the parking garage on the East side of Campus at 205 South Wilson Boulevard, in any of the surface lots on campus, or in the Vine Street Christian church parking lot across Montgomery Bell Avenue.

This event will take place in the new Burkholder Wellness Center. Please enter through the main rotunda entrance, go through the double doors on the left to enter the Event Center.

More information below.