After spending nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row, 58-year-old Anthony Ray Hinton was freed on Friday after prosecutors finally acknowledged that the case against him lacked sufficient evidence to tie him to the murders of two fast-food workers in 1985.

Hinton thanked God for his release and for sending him "the best lawyers," who tirelessly fought for his freedom for the last 16 years.

"Thirty years ago [the] prosecution seemed deemed to take my life [away] from me," said Hinton during a press conference outside of the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham, adding that "they had every intention for executing me for something that I didn't do."

Hinton went on to state that he lost three decades of his life unnecessarily.

"I shouldn't have sat on death row for 30 years. All they had to do was test the gun," Hinton told reporters.

Hinton was convicted of murder in 1985 when he was 29 years old for the deaths of John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason. The case was largely based on evidence from bullets at the crime scene. However, new testing showed that the bullets couldn't be connected to Hinton, reports The Associated Press.

The Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit that has been involved in Hinton's case since 1999, conducted testing on the weapon used in the killings; "the testing revealed that the Hinton weapon was not used in these crimes," said Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the group and Hinton's lead attorney, to ABC News.

Stevenson added that the state "refused to do the testing" for 15 years.

The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in 2014 that Hinton had inadequate counsel and sent the case back for a second trial. Prosecutors then moved to dismiss the case after the bullet testing.

"Race, poverty, inadequate legal assistance, and prosecutorial indifference to innocence conspired to create a textbook example of injustice," said Stevenson, according to CNN. "I can't think of a case that more urgently dramatizes the need for reform than what has happened to Anthony Ray Hinton."