Story highlights Anthony Ray Hinton goes free Friday, decades after conviction for two murders

Court ordered new trial in 2014, years after gun experts testified on his behalf

Prosecution moved to dismiss charges this year

(CNN) Anthony Ray Hinton is thankful to be free after nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row for murders he says he didn't commit.

And incredulous that it took so long.

Hinton, 58, looked up, took in the sunshine and thanked God and his lawyers Friday morning outside the county jail in Birmingham, minutes after taking his first steps as a free man since 1985.

He spoke of unjustly losing three decades of his life, under fear of execution, for something he didn't do.

"All they had to do was to test the gun, but when you think you're high and mighty and you're above the law, you don't have to answer to nobody," Hinton told reporters.

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