Tommy Lee Hines arriving for his trial at the Cullman County courthouse in Cullman, Alabama.

His father, Richard, and James Guster are walking on either side of him. Tommy Lee Hines, a 26-year old man who was said to have the mind of a 6-year-old child, had been charged with raping three white women in Decatur. Because his lawyer argued that he could not get a fair trial in Morgan County, i...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Triolo, Tony
Format: Electronic
Published: Alabama Department of Archives and History
Subjects:
Online Access:http://cdm17217.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/amg/id/124736
Description
Summary:His father, Richard, and James Guster are walking on either side of him. Tommy Lee Hines, a 26-year old man who was said to have the mind of a 6-year-old child, had been charged with raping three white women in Decatur. Because his lawyer argued that he could not get a fair trial in Morgan County, it was moved to Cullman, where an all-white jury convicted him of one rape and sentenced him to thirty years in prison. Two years later, a different jury found him mentally incompetent to stand trial, and he was transferred to Partlow State School and Hospital in Tuscaloosa, where he stayed for more than a decade.