The Sun Does Shine Major Figures

Anthony Ray Hinton

Anthony Ray Hinton (born 1956), “Ray” to his friends, is the main figure and narrator of The Sun Does Shine. From Alabama, Hinton grew up during the beginning of integration of Alabama’s public schools. As a Black student athlete, he suffered racial discrimination from white classmates, spectators, and competitors and failed to earn a baseball scholarship. A large, tall, athletic man, Hinton was always successful with women and considered his attraction to them and they to him as his greatest weakness. After working for several years as a coal miner, Hinton was employed in a warehouse when he was suddenly arrested by the police for a crime he didn’t commit. Following a trial in which his public defender hired an incompetent “expert,” Hinton was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. During his time on death row, Hinton drew on the moral support from his mother, his closest friend, his new attorney, and even other death row prisoners to remain positive and resist succumbing to hatred or despair.

Over the years on death row, Hinton learned to escape to his imagination and find solace in helping other people. He started a prison book club in which he and other death row inmates read and discussed works of literature. In time, even the prison guards come to admire him and support his legal battle for exoneration. However, despite mounting evidence of his innocence, the state of Alabama refused to admit its mistake or recognize Hinton as the victim of racial prejudice and an unfair legal system. By 2015, his case reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which overturned the original sentence and set him free. After being released, Hinton vowed to use his freedom to fight on behalf of those still facing the death penalty.

Buhlar Hinton

Buhlar Hinton (died 2002) is the mother of Anthony Ray Hinton and the most important moral influence in his life. A selfless, hardworking woman, she raised and supported 10 children mostly on her own after her husband was sent to a mental institution following a coal mining accident. She taught her children, including Anthony Ray, to be honest and to trust the authorities. Her lessons are part of the reason Hinton cooperated with the police and continued to believe that the “truth will set him free” even after the system’s corruption became evident. She is fond of wearing big hats, which signal her authority and determination.

Her handgun, which had not been fired in decades, was seized by the police and used as evidence of Anthony Ray Hinton’s guilt when he was arrested. Despite being poor, she was prepared to give up what little money she had to support her son’s legal battle, even sending money orders to his attorney Sheldon Perhacs. Until her illness and subsequent death from cancer in 2002, she continued to make the long trips from her home to visit her son at Holman Prison. Even after her death, she continued to serve as a moral example to Hinton, who imagined her voice counseling him in his lowest moment after his appeal was rejected by the Alabama Supreme Court.

Lester Bailey

Lester Bailey is Anthony Ray Hinton’s best friend for life. Two years younger than Hinton, Lester first befriended him because their mothers were friends. As a child, he refused to leave Hinton’s side and then maintained the same devotion through the years of Hinton’s incarceration. Later in life, Hinton came to see Lester as one of the only people he could truly trust, along with his attorney Bryan Stevenson. As children and teens, Bailey and Hinton walked together between school and their homes. Because they were Black, they feared being attacked and often were forced to hide in ditches when unfamiliar cars passed by. While his friend was imprisoned, Lester lived a full life and had children. But he never forgot his best friend and would drive to the prison every week for visiting days along with Hinton’s mother in the early years and then with his wife in later years. After Hinton’s release and subsequent fame, Lester has continued to accompany him in his travels, enjoying the reward for loyalty and friendship.

Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson (born 1959) is a lawyer from the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) who became Hinton’s main attorney after Hinton fired his previous attorney (also from the EJI). Stevenson was Hinton’s first Black attorney and also became a personal friend. He worked tirelessly not only for Hinton but also for other prisoners on death row. When he first heard about Stevenson, Hinton thought the man sounded like someone from a fairy tale and likened him to Santa Claus: something you hope for but don’t dare believe in. Stevenson’s commitment to and personal investment in his clients’ cases was so sincere that at one point Hinton ordered him to take a weekend off to take care of himself and not worry about his clients. Stevenson argued Hinton’s case for years, doggedly and eloquently, eventually appealing it to the US Supreme Court, where Hinton was exonerated. Although he is a well-educated and accomplished attorney, as a Black man he also faces discrimination from his white colleagues.

Reggie

Reggie grew up in the same town as Anthony Ray Hinton and played baseball against him as a teen. Unbeknownst to Hinton, Reggie held a long grudge against him after Hinton dated the girl Reggie was interested in while dating the girl’s sister at the same time. During this time, Reggie talked about Hinton behind his back, but Hinton didn’t care or worry because he was bigger and stronger than Reggie. In fact, he thought of Reggie as a “snake slithering around behind [his] back.” Years later, Reggie was employed at one of the restaurants that the “Cooler Killer” robbed. Reggie identified Hinton as the killer, even though Hinton was much bigger than the suspect. Reggie received a $5,000 reward for his information and subsequently testified at court, falsely claiming that during a brief encounter Hinton asked him about the restaurant’s closing hours. Eventually, Hinton forgives Reggie for his deceit.

Sheldon Perhacs

Sheldon Perhacs is Anthony Ray Hinton’s first court-appointed public defender, representing him during the initial trial and appeals process. Hinton describes Perhacs as tall and athletic, resembling a boxer or mobster. Initially, Hinton pinned all his hopes on Perhacs and imagined him as Rocky Balboa from the Rocky film series, a courageous and determined boxer ready to fight to the bitter end. In reality, Perhacs was a greedy, amoral individual who cared little about his clients’ innocence or hardship. Perhacs was paid only $1,000 to represent Hinton, an amount Perhacs claimed he “eats for breakfast.” While representing Hinton, he continued to “shake him down” for money, even suggesting Buhlar Hinton mortgage her house to pay for his legal fees. Perhacs’s negligence in hiring an incompetent, legally blind ballistics expert contributed to Hinton’s conviction. Years later, it came to light that Perhacs was personal friends with the racist prosecutor who sought Hinton’s execution.

Bob McGregor

Bob McGregor (died 2010) is a prosecutor working for the state of Alabama. He argued the state’s case in Anthony Ray Hinton’s trial and seemed to take on a personal hatred of Hinton. He claimed that Hinton “radiates guilt and evil,” while Hinton regarded McGregor as the only possibly evil person involved in his unjust imprisonment. McGregor is described as a self-righteous “sorry-looking man with a weak chin, saggy jowls, and a pallor . . . [as if he’d] . . . never worked a day outside in his life.” Years later, after public pressure mounted on the state of Alabama to reverse its conviction, McGregor continued to affirm Hinton’s guilt. He even promised to shoot Hinton himself if he were released from prison. Before his death in 2010, McGregor published a book in which he singled out Hinton as one of the evilest men he had ever prosecuted.

Judge Garrett

Judge Garrett is the judge who handles Anthony Ray Hinton’s case and pronounces the sentence on him. Unlike the prosecutor, Judge Garrett is not represented as overly antagonistic to Hinton, only indifferent to his hardship. Throughout the memoir, Garrett is shown as bored when in court and later reluctant to recommend change to the original ruling or allow additional evidence despite the weakness of the prosecution’s original case. Hinton describes Garrett as a large man who looks “overstuffed and uncomfortable.” After he retired, he continued to work on Hinton’s case, wasting two years of Hinton’s life by unnecessarily dragging out an appeal process before ultimately reaffirming the state’s position.

Henry Hays

Henry Hays (1954–1997) is another prisoner on death row whom Anthony Ray Hinton befriends. Because they became friends before ever seeing one another’s face, Hinton was unaware at first that Henry was a white man. Hinton was later shocked to discover that Henry had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and was on death row for the lynching of a young Black man, Michael Donald, in 1981. Despite his horrific crime and racist upbringing, which Henry blamed on his parents, he and Hinton became close friends. At one point during visits, Henry tried to make his racist Klansman father shake Hinton’s hand and called Hinton his best friend. Henry joined Hinton’s book club, where he read works by Black authors and other books about racial injustice that helped him understand and contend with his racist upbringing and past beliefs. When he was executed, he told Hinton that he had a brother also named Ray and that he considered Hinton his brother as well.

Lieutenant Acker

Lieutenant Acker is one of the police officers who interrogate Anthony Ray Hinton after his arrest. He tried to get Hinton to sign a blank sheet of paper, which Hinton refused to do. Later, Acker rode with Hinton on his drive to Birmingham County Jail. During this ride, Acker admitted that he didn’t care whether Hinton was the guilty party and actually believed Hinton was likely innocent. Despite this belief, he noted that because Hinton was a Black man, he would suffer as if guilty. Acker seemed keenly aware of the virulent racial discrimination in the Alabama justice system but didn’t care and even seemed amused by the unfairness. He remarked that if Hinton didn’t commit the murders, “one of [his] brothers did” and that he’ll “take the rap” for it. Hinton didn’t want to believe Acker because his words contradicted everything Hinton’s mother taught him about justice and the truth, but Acker’s words end up being true.

The Cooler Killer

Described by witnesses as a Black man around 5’10”, the Cooler Killer is the unknown criminal who commits the series of murders and robberies for which Anthony Ray Hinton is arrested and convicted. Although surviving victims described him as noticeably smaller than Hinton and the crimes continued after Hinton’s arrest, the police refused to pursue him once they charged Hinton. The Cooler Killer targeted managers of fast-food restaurants, earning his name from his modus operandi of forcing victims inside freezers before shooting them and robbing their establishments. At one point, an unnamed man, possibly the real killer, telephoned Hinton’s lawyer Sheldon Perhacs to corroborate Hinton’s innocence, but neither the lawyer nor the police pursued this lead. The Cooler Killer has never been caught.