"I feel like I been raped the first time and now they’re raping me again"

Hinton’s application for redress was unanimously approved by a state senate committee earlier this year and an Alabama lawmaker introduced a bill that would have set aside $1.5 million for what the 61-year-old Hinton calls “30 years of hell.”

But the state legislature never got around to debating that bill before wrapping up its session in May, leaving Hinton bitter and practically broke two years after his convictions were tossed.

“I feel like I been raped the first time and now they’re raping me again,” said Hinton. “I get tired of talking about race, but I have to call a spade a spade. They’re doing this to me because I’m a black man and they have the power. They’re doing this to me because they can.”