Web7.9K views, 321 likes, 112 loves, 25 comments, 220 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Innocence Project: Termaine Hicks wrote 12 plays and countless poems during his 19 years of wrongful Termaine Hicks - Just Another Day | Termaine Hicks wrote 12 plays and countless poems during his 19 years of wrongful incarceration. Termaine Hicks was released from SCI Phoenix on Wednesday after a wrongful incarceration of 19 years. We empower youth to use their voice to prevent bullying and violence, says Hicks about his presentations at schools. He served 19 years for a wrongful conviction. For 19 years, Termaine Joseph Hicks maintained his innocence. During his wrongful imprisonment, Mr. Hicks said he focused on his mental and spiritual health and used creative writing as an emotional outlet. After his dramatic exoneration and release from prison, Hicks spent six months just trying to ease back into society. Wanting to reach young people before fateful decisions are made, he began to produce videos on gun violence and bullying. Please avoid sharing any personal information in the comments below and join us in making this a hate-speech free and safe space for everyone. Hicks was then charged with the rape and later exonerated after the Conviction Integrity Unit found that the case was built on liespossibly to cover up the unjustified shooting and that forensic evidence easily cleared Hicks who should never have been arrested let alone convicted of the rape. He often speaks for the Innocence Project. Im just sad because honestly those officers got away with a crime, Rojas said. Press "Enter" or click on the arrow to show results. Termaine Joseph Hicks was freed from prison in Philadelphia on Wednesday after serving 19 of 25 years on a trumped up conviction Hicks, now 45, was jailed in 2001 after Philadelphia cops Marvin Vinson and Sgt. But, he added: Its unfortunate and sad that it took how long it took for me to clear my name. After realizing theyd shot an unarmed man who did not match the description of the attacker, the officers conspired to cover it up. She also extended an apology to the victim, whose name was withheld. This dragging on, its like youre still living it, Reynolds said. For the most accurate data, please search on the Detailed View page. Help us advocate for the innocent by sharing the latest news from the Innocence Project. She would always say, Ive got some good news and some not-so-good news. The good news was that he still had a chance, and the not-so-good news was another continuance60 days, 90 days, 180 days. But the prosecutors who reworked the case now say at least some of the testimony against Hicks was not true. Dennis Zungolo testified against him They claim they found him raping a woman in an alley near a hospital and Witnesses also testified that they had seen a man in a gray hoodie attack the woman, according to court records. He has always maintained that he arrived at the scene when he attempted to help the victim, she said. Termaine Hicks speaks out after 19 years in prison for a crime he didnt commit (Part 1), At least 2 dead after exposure to unknown substance at N.Y. senior facility, Clark Atlanta University students mourn loss of athlete fatally shot near campus, Iranian government to investigate series of poisonings, Pennsylvania man accused of trying to bring explosive on plane, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle asked to leave Frogmore Cottage. The reversal comes amid a recent flurry of exonerations as the citys district attorney, Larry Krasner, has aggressively pushed to revisit at least 16 questionable convictions. The Inquirer reported that Hickss lawyer, Vanessa Potkin, said the gun was covered with blood, but the coat pocket, where Vinson claimed Hicks had been keeping the gun, was clean. According to lawyers, it shows a man in a hoodie dragging the victim into the alley. On Wednesday afternoon, released from the State Correctional Institution Phoenix to his brothers home just a few miles away in Montgomery County, Hicks said he was both overjoyed and overwhelmed. on our list, Other In fact, it would be eight years before they could look at it. In fact, the gun was registered as the off-duty weapon of another uniformed Philadelphia police officer. Termaine Hicks was released from SCI Phoenix Prison Tuesday, Dec.16, 2020 in Collegeville, Penn. It was in such a group at the State Correctional InstitutionGraterford, a maximum-security prison in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, that EfM group leader Ginny Slichter met Termaine Hicks for the first time. Bitterness is cancerous, and this knowledge frees up my mental space: I know God had me. In 2016, the city paid $15,000 to settle a civil-rights lawsuit naming Vinson as one of two officers who dragged a taxi driver falsely accused of stealing a cell phone out of his cab, assaulted him, and told him if he did not like it, he could go back to his country., The Police Advisory Commissions executive director, Anthony Erace, said he was not familiar with Hicks case but would seek a review. Dr. Mark Bozzuti-Jones, Churchwide Global Mission Conference: Journey Into Healing, Finding Home in God with Yale Professor Miroslav Volf 3-Part Online Series. A reporter at the Inquirer since 2013, I cover issues of identity, race, social justice, as well as prisons and the legal system. In his 19 years behind bars, Hicks always maintained his innocence. A judge ordered him released last year at age 49, citing evidence that police and prosecutors built their case on fabricated statements from people they coerced as witnesses and later withheld evidence pointing to the likely true perpetrators of the crime. Termaine Hicks was convicted on rape and other charges, largely on the testimony of police officers. On December 16, 2020, Termaine Hicks received what he calls the best news Ive heard in all my life. Hicks learned that, after 19 years in prison for crimes he did not commit, he was finally going home. Chester Hollman III was 21, with no criminal record and a job as an armored-car driver, when he was pulled over in Center City one night in 1991 and charged with the fatal shooting of a University of Pennsylvania student in a botched street robbery. Realizing Mr. Hicks did not match the description of the attacker provided by a neighbor to 911 and that he was unarmed, the officers embarked on a cover-up, which included: Based on the officers testimony, Mr. Hicks was convicted of rape, aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of crime, and terroristic threats. Thank you for your understanding in this matter. Vinson testified that he fired because Hicks reached for a gun and lunged at him and his then-partner Zungolo testified he saw Hicks pulling up his pants when police arrived. Termaine Hicks was released from SCI Phoenix on Dec. 16 after 19 years in prison. Most of these kids had made a single mistake, he says, often as the result of bullying, and their entire lives were disrupted. The website is updated daily, frequently with exonerations that occurred in the past. Terms of Use / Privacy Policy / Manage Newsletters, By Associated Press - (Philadelphia, PA December 17, 2020) Termaine Hicks walked out of Pennsylvania prison SCI Phoenix yesterday. In this case, the new evidence came from Hickss clothing and his own body. Rev. Photo: Jason E. Miczek/AP Images for The Innocence Project. His payout is just $50,000 short of the record for settlements of its kind in the city a distinction held by the $9.85 million agreement the city struck in 2018 with Anthony Wright, a man who served nearly 25 years of a sentence for a 1991 rape and murder that DNA evidence proved decades later he did not commit. The timing was uncanny. There were moments, but I did not give up, he said. They have told me that the trauma of a retrial would be unbearable, she said. As he was reaching for his cellphone to dial 911, the police suddenly arrived, shot him in the back and charged him unjustly. Police claimed that Mr. Hicks had a gun on him as part of their effort to cover up the circumstances of the shooting, but the weapon that was attributed to Mr. Hicks was registered to an active Philadelphia police officer. The officer had not reported the gun missing. A woman had been pistol-whipped, dragged into an alleyway behind what was then St. Agnes Hospital in South Philadelphia, and raped until the rapist was startled and fled the scene. after a wrongful incarceration for 19 years. Although most of the evidence analyzed in the recent review of the case was available at the time of Hickss original trial, the jury never saw an enhanced security tape that corroborated parts of Hickss story. IE 11 is not supported. READ MORE: Police shot a Philly man, then accused him of rape. During his wrongful imprisonment, Termaine focused on his mental and spiritual health and used creative writing as an emotional outlet. Hicks 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, said Vanessa Potkin, director of post-conviction litigation at the Innocence Project, who represented Mr. Hicks. After shooting Hicks, Vinson approached and patted him down in search of his weapon. Hicks said the officer shot him in the back as he was reaching into his pocket for his phone to call 911. As one of the men said, referencing the work of famed public interest lawyer and equal justice activist Bryan Stevenson, Would you want to be known for the worst thing you ever did, for the rest of your life?. She tried to get gas. We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deep-seated police misconduct and institutional protections are too often the source of wrongful convictions and injustice in the system. William Campbell, S.J. the $9.85 million agreement the city struck in 2018 with Anthony Wright. Twice a month, his attorney, Vanessa Potkin, would call from the Innocence Project. She couldnt clearly see her attacker in the dark, and she suffered a head injury. Termaine Hicks was released from SCI Phoenix Prison Tuesday, Dec.16, 2020 in Collegeville, Penn. During the trial a year later, the medical examiner would say he could not determine the direction from which the bullets that struck Hicks were fired. information about the Registry, Assault, Other Violent Felony, Gun Possession or Sale, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct, Inadequate Legal Defense. WebThe Innocence Project and Philadelphia DAs Conviction Integrity Unit found evidence police lied to cover up the shooting of Termaine Joseph Hicks, a bystander who rushed to help You cant be in this box when it comes to God and religion, he says. On Wednesday, Termaine Hicks received the the best Ive heard in all my life. After 19 years in prison for a crime he didnt commit, Mr. Hicks was going home. Police Officer Martin Vinson said he shot Hicks in the chest or stomach as Hicks was pulling a gun from his pocket and lunging toward him. Mr. Philadelphia police shot a man and accused him of rape. Both sides said it did not follow that the gun was smeared in blood, while the interior of the pocket it supposedly came from was pristine. I found what was already there. He created an organization called S.T.E.P.U.P., an acronym for Selfless Thinking Expresses Potential that Uplifts People, and began writing educational scripts that were later turned into films. Obviously, the worst part of these false convictions is that Black people are having enormous chunks of their lives stolen from them all because America is racist and its justice system reflects that, but the convictions are also a burden on taxpayers who end up footing the bill for settlements because they live in cities where law enforcement cares more about forcing guilty verdicts than they do about actually solving crimes. As a white man in the deep south(Ms) Ive seen racism and its unfair and uglythis world has no place for that.brother I dont care if you are pink, purple or polka dotted you are welcome to come eat with me and my family anytime.would love to meet you. Potkin also drew parallels to a criminal case, USA v. Mortimer, in which Ellis reported recovering two illegal guns from a suspect during a 1996 traffic stop. 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