Termaine Joseph Hicks exonerated after 19 years in prison inquirer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from inquirer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Justine Coleman - 12/17/20 11:34 AM EST
A Black man in Philadelphia was exonerated on Wednesday and released after 19 years in prison for a rape that a new division in the prosecutor s office ultimately determined he did not commit.
The Philadelphia District Attorney s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) agreed with Termaine Joseph Hicks, 45, and his lawyers that the case against him was contradicted by forensic evidence and based on false statements, according to court documents submitted Tuesday.
Hicks, who goes by Jermaine Weeks in court documents, was responding to a woman screaming in an alley when police arrived and shot him three times in 2001. Hicks and his lawyers had asserted that the actual rapist fled the scene before Hicks arrived. Hicks was convicted and sentenced to 12 1/2 to 25 years in prison.
One in an occasional series about Philadelphia’s unchecked gun violence. Every trip outside the house for Jackee Nichols brings a new reminder of the pain. Nichols is from a part of South Philadelphia that has been embroiled in a shooting conflict for as long as anyone can remember. In October 2018, that violence claimed her 15-year-old grandson. Police believe he was gunned down for living on the wrong block but, like most shootings in Philadelphia, no one has been charged in the crime. Now Nichols faces the daily torment of living among the people she suspects killed her grandson, Rasul Benson, leaving trauma to resurface in unexpected moments.