When my Innocence Project attorney Vanessa Potkin called me two weeks ago, I was numb. And then I couldn’t stop smiling. She told me that the court finally recognized what I had been saying for 19 years — that several police officers lied at my trial and the wrong person had been convicted. After nearly two decades in prison for a crime I didn’t commit, my conviction had been vacated and I was officially exonerated. I was finally going home.
It was the best news I’ve heard in all my life.
I was wrongly convicted of a rape that took place in Philadelphia in 2001. I was walking home when I heard a woman screaming and went to help her. She was badly injured and I was reaching for my phone to call 911 when the police arrived, responding to neighbors’ calls. They shot me three times in the back.
After realizing I was unarmed and didn’t match the description of the attacker, the Philadelphia police embarked on a massive cover-up of their mistake. At my trial, officers lied under oath and I was wrongly convicted of attacking the woman I had tried to help.
It was a horrific experience. But throughout my 19 years in prison, I never gave up hope that my freedom would come one day. The Innocence Project came in with a talented and tenacious legal team. It’s because of their fierce and relentless commitment to justice that I am home today, and I will be forever grateful.
Termaine Hicks (center) was released from SCI Phoenix Prison on Dec. 16, 2020, in Collegeville, Penn. Image: Jason E. Miczek/AP Images for the Innocence Project.
The day I walked out of prison was such a joyful day for me and my family. But at the same time, my thoughts were with the countless others who are not coming home now or ever because of the deep injustices of the system.
I’m grateful to the Innocence Project for not only their work on my case, but their ongoing reform work to address police misconduct.
For now, I just want to love and spend time with my big family. Eventually, I want to write, produce, and direct plays — I wrote 12 plays while in prison, and I have a ton of ideas I want to produce.
And thanks to the work of the Innocence Project, I now have an opportunity to pursue all the things I want to do.
The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
