Hinton v. State

PARKER, Justice.

Anthony Ray Hinton petitioned the Jefferson Circuit Court (“the circuit court”) for relief under Rule 32, Ala. R.Crim. P., arguing that his trial counsel had provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to provide a qualified expert in his defense at his capital-murder trial. The circuit court denied Hinton’s Rule 32 petition on the basis that Andrew Payne, the expert retained by defense counsel, was qualified to testify as a firearms-identification expert at Hinton’s trial. Hinton appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals; the Court of Criminal Appeals, after…