Just the right time.

A 64-year-old man from the United States of America voted for the first time in a presidential election after spending 30 years on death row for a crime that he had never committed in the first place.

Anthony Ray Hinton, the man that we are talking about, had his saddening story featured on True Justice, an HBO original.

He was charged with the murder of 2 fast-food restaurant managers in Birmingham, Atlanta, the USA in the year 1985.

He never did those crimes.

For 30 years, Mr. Hinton was stripped of all his rights while he sat on Alabama's death row for a crime he didn't commit. This morning, he arrived at the polls and exercised his right to vote. #ElectionDay #Vote2020 pic.twitter.com/J2eFOWnheD

— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) November 3, 2020

He was sentenced to the death penalty and held in solitary confinement on death row for 28 years.

Talking about voting, Anthony said that he had his rights taken away from him.

The experience that he got when he was in jail made him determined to make a difference and made him vote in America.

During an interview with the Washington Post, he said:

You don’t know freedom until it’s taken from you. Being locked up for 30 years made me realize how important the vote was. By not voting, you allow people to get into the driver’s seat that allows them to oppress you even more.

On April 3, 2015, Hinton was exonerated.

However, he was not eligible to cast a vote in the 2016 presidential elections, where Donald Trump won the presidency.

It was not until the Moral Turpitude Act of 2017, which came into practice in 2018, that Alabama residents that were convicted of felonies were able to register to vote.

For 30 years, Mr. Hinton was stripped of all his rights while he sat on Alabama death row for a crime he didn't commit. Today, he arrived at the polls at 7am and exercised his right to vote. pic.twitter.com/ObYX2luiP4

— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) November 7, 2018

During the 1985 trial, the prosecution claimed that Hinton, who was just 29 at that time, was guilty of the murders because of a revolver gun that was found in his possession and he was not even the owner.

The gun belonged to his mother and in 2002, firearms experts brought in by the Equal Justice Initiative testified that this particular gun was not the weapon used in the murders.

Hinton was then granted a new trial and the charges were dropped after the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences determined that the bullets that killed the 2 victims did not come from the mother’s gun of the accused.

On November 3, he did something that he never thought he would.

Hinton voted on November 3, 2020.

The thing that he thought about when he voted is his grandparents and parents.

The parents and grandparents of Hinton were blocked from voting because of literacy tests, poll taxes, and intimidation.

Such good news to hear!