Anthony Ray Hinton

I witnessed other inmates' time run out, and I'd be lying if I said you don't ask yourself, 'Wow, is that going to happen to me?' ”

I loved to read books in the free world, and there was a lot of time to sit around and do nothing in prison. When you read, it opens up your mind; it helped us take our minds away from where we were. ”

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. ”

Believe me, when you're sitting on death row, you want the appeal process to take time; as long as you're going through it, you're going to be alive. ”

Death row was the only place where I never witnessed racism. We all went to bed with a death sentence on our heads and woke up that way. We had to become each other's support system. ”

What kind of system do we have when innocent people can sit on death row for 30 years? ”

The men on death row had been told the world would be better without them. I tried to say that this may not be where we want to be, but let's do what we can for one another. ”

When you have a death row case, you have to make 100 percent sure you have the right person. But these DAs in the state of Alabama are racist. ”

You get to know everyone on death row. You become friends with them and their families. I met some great guys. Everyone regrets what they did. ”

What do you say to a person who is going to their death? Normally, we would just say, 'Hang in there, keep your hope up,' because there is hope until the very last second. ”