{"id":2825,"date":"2020-12-18T15:12:51","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T15:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=141017"},"modified":"2020-12-18T15:12:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T15:12:51","slug":"the-best-news-ive-heard-in-all-my-life-termaine-hicks-is-exonerated-after-19-years-of-wrongful-incarceration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/18\/the-best-news-ive-heard-in-all-my-life-termaine-hicks-is-exonerated-after-19-years-of-wrongful-incarceration\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Best News I\u2019ve Heard in All My Life\u2019: Termaine Hicks Is Exonerated After 19 Years of Wrongful Incarceration"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, Termaine Hicks<\/span><\/a> received the \u201cthe best I\u2019ve heard in all my life.\u201d After 19 years in prison for a crime he didn\u2019t commit, Mr. Hicks was going home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe other guys on the [cell] block were shouting. They were happy for me, banging on doors,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Hicks was exonerated<\/span><\/a> after the Philadelphia Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), led by Patricia Cummings, joined the Innocence Project\u2019s motion to vacate his conviction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Hicks, an Innocence Project client, was wrongly convicted of a rape that took place in Philadelphia in 2001. Then a 26-year-old father of one, Mr. Hicks had been walking home when he heard a woman screaming. She was badly beaten, so he reached for his cell phone to call 911. At that moment, police, responding to the calls of several neighbors, arrived on the scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

They shot him three times in the back. Only after did they realize their mistake \u2014\u00a0Mr. Hicks was not the right person. The man they had just shot did not match the description of the attacker provided by a witness, who saw the assailant dragging the victim into an alley. And he was unarmed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a joyful day for me and my family,\u201d Mr. Hicks said after being released. \u201cAt the same time, my thoughts and prayers are with the countless others who are not coming home today \u2014\u00a0or ever because of an impulsive, ill-prepared, and apprehensive cop. The way that cops approach Black and brown men and women \u2026 stems from years of systemic racism. We need a whole new system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After realizing they\u2019d shot an unarmed man who did not match the description of the attacker, the officers conspired to cover it up. According to the National Registry of Exonerations<\/span><\/a>, police misconduct, like this, has played a role in 35% of wrongful convictions resulting in exonerations since 1989.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Hicks\u2019 case is yet another example of the pervasive problem of police perjury in the criminal legal system,\u201d said Vanessa Potkin, director of post-conviction litigation at the Innocence Project, who represented Mr. Hicks. \u201cThe cover up of shooting an innocent man required the false testimony of three officers and the acquiescence of a dozen more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The officers falsely testified at trial that Mr. Hicks had lunged at them while armed with a gun that he pulled from his pocket. However, the recent assessments by both the chief medical examiner for the City of Philadelphia and an independent medical examiner concluded that Mr. Hicks was shot from behind \u2014\u00a0meaning he wasn\u2019t coming toward the officers when he was shot. And the gun the officers alleged to have found in his pocket was actually the off-duty weapon of another Philadelphia police officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“We need a whole new system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Based on these lies, Mr. Hicks was convicted of rape, aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of crime, and terroristic threats in 2002 and sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Hicks\u2019 case is yet another example of systemic police abuse that is pervasive in the criminal legal system and persists because of institutional protections and a lack of accountability,\u201d Ms. Potkin said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe officers involved in this case had extensive internal affairs files with numerous allegations of lying, planting evidence, excessive force, and substantiated complaints filed by civilians. Had these records been publicly available, Mr. Hicks may not have had to endure so many years of injustice or been wrongly convicted at all,\u201d she said. Police disciplinary records are currently kept confidential in nearly half of states<\/span><\/a>, including Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally home, Mr. Hicks said he\u2019s most proud of himself for staying strong and remaining determined to prove his innocence. At one point, Mr. Hicks was considered for parole, but was ultimately denied because he refused to admit guilt, and continued to maintain his innocence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were moments, but I did not give up,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the bullets barely missed my spine, but you\u2019re talking to a guy who ran a couple of marathons while he was incarcerated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During his wrongful imprisonment, Mr. Hicks said he focused on his mental and spiritual health and used creative writing as an emotional outlet. He wrote 12 plays and musicals while in prison and, now that he\u2019s free, he hopes to eventually produce and direct plays.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until then, he just wants to spend time with his family as a free person.<\/span><\/p>\n

The post \u2018The Best News I\u2019ve Heard in All My Life\u2019: Termaine Hicks Is Exonerated After 19 Years of Wrongful Incarceration<\/a> appeared first on Innocence Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, Termaine Hicks received the \u201cthe best I\u2019ve heard in all my life.\u201d After 19 years in prison for a crime he didn\u2019t commit, Mr. Hicks was\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[871,4,846,847,848,872,850],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2826,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions\/2826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}