Other Convicted Innocents
Anthony Hicks
Year of Incident: 1990
Jurisdiction: Wisconsin
Charge: Rape, Robbery
Conviction: Rape, Robbery
Sentence: 20 years
Year of Conviction: 1991
Year of Exoneration: 1997
Sentence Served: 5 years
Real perpetrator found? Not yet
Compensation? Not yet
The victim was getting ready for work in her apartment when she heard a
knock at the door. It was a black man claiming to be her upstairs
neighbor and requesting to use the phone. The victim let him into her
apartment. The man then stole the money from her purse, tied a scarf
around the victim, and sexually assaulted her. Anthony Hicks was
stopped a few days after the crime on a traffic violation and turned
into a suspect when someone in jail thought he looked like the police
sketch.
Five hairs were recovered from the bedroom in the victim's apartment.
The hairs were from an African-American and the victim testified that
she had never had a black man in her house before the incident and the
last black woman to be in her house was there over a year ago. Hair
comparison showed that the hair found at the scene was consistent with
the defendant's hair. All original DNA testing done on the hairs was
inconclusive due to insufficient sample size. There was not enough
sperm found for testing. All serology testing results were inconclusive.
Hicks eventually secured access to the evidence and had it subjected to
DNA testing. One of the roots of one of the hairs yielded enough DNA to
obtain a profile, which excluded Hicks.