LogFAQs > #884114499

Hinton also was charged related to the July 26, 1985 shooting of Quincy's night manager Sid Smotherman Jr., who was shot in the head and hand in a robbery at the Bessemer restaurant. Smotherman survived and testified at Hinton's trial that he was driving home after work when Hinton bumped his car, and when he got out to check for damage Hinton forced him at gunpoint to drive back to the restaurant.

This was the only credible evidence against him for at least one of the robberies. The witness could be a white guy and therefore may have had some trouble identifying black suspects. The other "evidence" was ballistics, which is often shaky forensics, as it was in this case. The state should be held accountable for employing such "evidence" to obtain a conviction. A lot of this "forensic" stuff has not been subjected to peer review in scientific journals.