Larry Hicks

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Charge:	Murder
Sentence:	Death
Years Imprisoned:	3
Year Crime:
Year Convicted:	1978
Year Cleared:	1981
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Indiana
County or Region of Crime:	Lake
City of Crime:	Gary
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Larry Hicks was wrongly convicted of a double murder in Gary, Indiana and sentenced to death. The Playboy Foundation helped to prove his innocence. Saved from execution, he was "the case of a young man with no family, friends or funds who avoided the electric chair mainly by a stroke of extraordinary good luck." (MJ, 125) Hicks was acquitted by a jury after his retrial."
Conviction Caused By:	Erroneous eyewitness testimony of two women who said they had seen Hicks arguing and waving a knife at the victims who were stabbed to death.
Innocence Proved By:	Larry Hicks was acquitted by a jury after his retrial.
Defendant Aided By:	Attorney Nile Stanton and the The Playboy Foundation paid for a private investigator who interviewed the two witnesses against Hicks who recanted their testimony.
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	19
Age When Released:	22
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	"The Ordeal of Larry Hicks: How An Innocent Man Was Almost Executed, By Nile Stanton, occasionaljustice.com, April 4, 2007"
Information Location 1:	http://occasionaljustice.com/Larry.html
Information Source 2:	"The Ordeal of Larry Hicks," By Bill Helmer (Senior Editor), Playboy (magazine), May, 1981"
Information Location 2:
Information Source 3:	"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 125."
Information Location 3:
Information Source 4:	Death Penalty Information Center
Information Location 4:	http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html
Information Source 5:	Center on Wrongful Convictions at NW U School of Law
Information Location 5:	http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/IND_Hicks.htm
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Larry Hicks

Charge:

Murder

Sentence:

Death

Years Imprisoned:

3

Year Crime:

Year Convicted:

1978

Year Cleared:

1981

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Indiana

County or Region of Crime:

Lake

City of Crime:

Gary

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Erroneous eyewitness testimony of two women who said they had seen Hicks arguing and waving a knife at the victims who were stabbed to death.

Innocence Proved By:

Larry Hicks was acquitted by a jury after his retrial.

Defendant Aided By:

Attorney Nile Stanton and the The Playboy Foundation paid for a private investigator who interviewed the two witnesses against Hicks who recanted their testimony.

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

19

Age When Released:

22

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"The Ordeal of Larry Hicks: How An Innocent Man Was Almost Executed, By Nile Stanton, occasionaljustice.com, April 4, 2007"

Information Location 1:

http://occasionaljustice.com/Larry.html

Information Source 2:

"The Ordeal of Larry Hicks," By Bill Helmer (Senior Editor), Playboy (magazine), May, 1981"

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 125."

Information Location 3:

Information Source 4:

Death Penalty Information Center

Information Location 4:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html

Information Source 5:

Center on Wrongful Convictions at NW U School of Law

Information Location 5:

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/IND_Hicks.htm

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: