A Pittsburgh man imprisoned for more than three decades for a homicide he committed as a teenager pleaded for his freedom with an Allegheny County judge on Wednesday.
Keith Hicks was 17 when he fatally shot a 15-year-old boy who “was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” a prosecutor said in front of a standing-room-only courtroom gallery packed mostly with Hicks’ supporters.
The killing happened in 1994 in Pittsburgh, according to news accounts at the time.
Hicks is seeking resentencing because the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 deemed juvenile life sentences without the possibility of parole to be unconstitutional.
Prosecutors are seeking a prison term of 40 years to life for Hicks. Defense attorney Herbert A. Terrell told Howsie he wants Hicks released now, based on time served.
Hicks, 48, with hair down his back and a beard whose edges are graying, told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Eliot Howsie he’s a changed man.
Clad in a florescent yellow prison jumpsuit, Hicks sat next to his defense attorney and spent much of his nine-minute court statement talking about his growth, as well as his drive to educate himself and mentor others.
He also looked directly at relatives of his victim, Terrance Allen, and apologized.
“I take full responsibility for my actions, for even being involved in gang and street activities in the first place,” Hicks said to Allen’s family.
“I’d like you to know I’m far removed from that person, from that young man who was lost,” he added. “I’ve made some serious changes. It took time. It took perseverance. But there came a time I had to look myself in the mirror.”
Two of Allen’s relatives pushed back.
Assistant District Attorney Rusheen Pettit read a statement from Ray Ross, Terrence’s father, who joined the hearing from Baltimore via video conference. His statement began: “A letter to my son’s murderer.”
“You are a wretched thief — one of the worst kind,” Ross wrote in his victim-impact statement. “You stole one who was adored. You ripped away his future.”
“I implore you, judge,” Ross added in closing, “Please do not let him out.”
Howsie said he would announce his sentencing decision on June 2.