“What does it feel like to be innocent on Death Row?”

My answer? 

“A setback for mankind.”

I was born in the ‘70s to black parents in black times in a world that was gray at best.  My earliest lessons on guilt were not determined by wrongdoings, but by the color of one’s skin.  I saw the guilty as they were dipped in tar and strung up for public viewing, or set upon for sitting down to eat.  Guilt then becomes a psychological impression on the minds of black communities; a sense of guilt that is the origin of the criminal mind – a reflection of how we feel.  Guilt is the cultural identity that leaves behind a trail of regrets, so I am dissociated with feeling innocent in a country that charges people guilty for having black skin.

I was convicted of the murder of a restaurant manager in April, 2000, and sentenced to die by a consenting jury by way of lethal injection.  Arriving on Death Row, I conceded two things – my innocence was insignificant and justice grotesquely one-sided.  I decided that neither guilt nor innocence had brought me there – it was powerlessness.  I was powerless to take charge of my life and break the cycle of recidivism.  I was put on the path to prison at the age of seven, the time I first stole, my impropriety promising to progress over time.  By the age of twenty-seven, I was the product of circumstances and my road ended here, yet despite all my wrongdoings, still I did not deserve to be on Death Row.

I avoided eye contact with men, sparse with my words, afraid that my difference would show and the rapists, brutes and murderers would figure out I was not.  There was no introduction guide to Death Row, but if there was, I imagined it would’ve read,

Innocence does not thrive here,
your hope is your despair.

For the first year, I uttered not a word about innocence, though the subject was one of recurrence, casually hinted at by some in conversations, while others were more straightforward.  I wondered if my own innocence sounded as disingenuous as theirs when spoken aloud.  The improbability of their innocence caused me to dismiss their claims as prison colloquialism.

Over time, I learned to shelve my innocence while emulating the hardened killers.  I was wary and distrusting, argumentative, and constantly on the lookout for a fight.  At night, sometimes, my mind broke free, much to my dismay.  I never knew fantasizing could hurt so bad.  I envisioned life as a working-class citizen, doing stringent work that was wearisome but decent, with a pension as opposed to a penalty.  Other times, I grasped at the wilting memories of family and friends as their influence crumbled under their hefty absence, and their faces yielded to time.

Then came the biggest news… a Death Row man was freed from here after being awarded a new trial. I was skeptical, challenged his innocence, as he was someone I previously dismissed.  Still the question lingered… what if he was innocent?  And what if there were others?  These men I’d subjected to my silent criticism, fostered by widespread belief.  Unable to relate due to their menacing aura, my innocence was too fragile to trust, so I rejected them based solely on my preconceived notion.  It was the very same rejection I feared.  I wanted to be happy for a guy whose stay on Death Row was at its end, but with my errant dismissal of him and my own self interest, I was too ashamed.

As the years rolled by, cases were amended and death sentences overturned – mental retardation and the prohibiting of minors were enactments that saved lives.  In some few cases, the men were exonerated on the likelihood of innocence, an unsettling error revealing that behind the virtue of our courts was depravity.  There was a time when I presumed our judicial system stood on the right side of public service, but with the growing number of death sentences vacated, an alarming truth emerged. Wrongful convictions were not the result of legal mishaps – but a setback in the evolution of justice.  It was a systemic trade-off, conviction rates in return for support at the ballots.  On the verge of understanding how my injustice came to be, I was nowhere close to help, as I struggled to wish well those men who departed… their hope was my despair.

Every day I longed for my freedom until all my hope was spent, and I was left with nothing more than a stale existence.  With each reversal, I felt sorely abandoned by the securities of the laws.  I pondered the plausibility of my injustice and came away rejecting myself.  I used recreational drugs, obscenities and conflict to propel my downward spiral.  I severed outside connections, quit my aspirations and rigorously questioned my faith.  It seemed my road didn’t stop on Death Row, but I was headed to a place much darker, and no matter how far my mind drifted from my mad reality, the executions pulled me back.

On those nights I ached helplessly as the clock wound down on the lives of men tethered to a gurney.  I wondered if they winced at the needle’s prick like I did as a kid at the clinic, or closed their eyes in defiance to die alone.  Done with feeling helpless, I put their deaths out of my mind and tried to remain unaffected by the executions until a death date arrived for a friend of mine… and my helplessness turned to surrender.

It was thirteen years later before I gained some clarity into the disorder taking place in my life.  It began with written essays that chronicled my past offenses, offenses unrelated to my stay here, restoring in me a sense of worth.  Accountability for my previous wrongs – saved my life.  Without it, I would’ve given up.  With the many death sentences being vacated, I couldn’t wait one more turn, and through accountability, I discovered there was redemption behind these walls, the potential to reinvent the principles of humanity – and the most promising yet was the willingness of these men to die with more dignity than that with which they lived.

So, what is it like to be innocent on Death Row is best answered by the word ‘unrest’.  It is a constant grinding of the mind in an effort to determine how we tolerate such criminal indecency.  My being wrongfully convicted is a laborious affliction under the stigmatic strain of disbelief – a strain that offered one resolve for me, complacency for my accusers.  It’s lonely being innocent with no one to talk to about the certainty of my innocence.  And frightening.  Only Ichabod Crane, a character from my childhood, terrified me so.  Often enough, being innocent feels pointless after 21 years of punishment, when death is no longer a menacing possibility but a welcome alternative.

Being innocent on Death Row is soulfully depressing, granting little peace of mind.  It is my fight to hold on to the hope I deserve, when the culpability isn’t mine to bear.  My innocence is no more relevant than the next man’s guilt when the ink on our status reads the same – and yet, what does it matter, guilt or innocence, in a nation such as our own, where both are punishable by death. 

Terry continues to work on his memoirs, as well as a book of fiction, and he can be contacted at (Please Note, this is a change of address, as NC has revised the way those in prison receive mail):
Terry Robinson #0349019
Central Prison
P.O. Box 247
Phoenix, MD 21131
OR
textbehind.com

Note: This year, I’ve asked Terry Robinson to share entries from his journal. We often see innocent individuals get out of prison after decades – but we can never fully appreciate what they went through. This is a small attempt to touch on the surface of what it is like to be innocent and on death row. How did Terry Robinson end up on death row? Two people physically connected to the crime scene accused Robinson of murder. That’s it. This is the first in this series. These entries are not edited, but shared in their original format.

February 5, 2014 (Wednesday, 12:43 a.m.)

Sitting here on my bed staring off into nothingness as so many thoughts fill my head about where I am and why I am here.  Does it even matter whether I’m innocent or not?  Am I destined to die here regardless?  Sometimes I wish they would just get it over with.  The heartache and pain from missing my family is unbearable – death has to be better than this.  Then I think… does this make me suicidal to prefer death over agony?  To know sadness day in and day out for more than fifteen years is a recipe for insanity.  Constantly engulfed in darkness.  Always alone, even when others are present.  Avoiding my reflection in the mirror each morning as I am afraid to face myself and the reality that is my life, or so my death.  I may never get to hug my mother again or go fishing with my father.  To many others that knew me, I am long forgotten; a conviction and a sentence has erased me from existence in all the ways that count.  The tears are more frequent and the numbness is without end. Some say, ‘prayer changes things’.  If that’s true, then the only thing it seems to have changed in my mind is that prayer changes things.  My hope is not just fleeting – it has long fled, but who the hell cares?

Terry continues to work on his memoirs, as well as a book of fiction, and he can be contacted at (Please Note, this is a change of address, as NC has revised the way those in prison receive mail):
Terry Robinson #0349019
Central Prison
P.O. Box 247
Phoenix, MD 21131
OR
textbehind.com

I am change in progress, striving not so much to be rid of my adverse circumstances, but to die a better person than I lived, and the last twenty years have taught me a lot.  It wasn’t long ago I faced my greatest fear and stepped onto the set of a live production of Reginald Rose’s ‘Twelve Angry Men’ to perform before a swell of doubtful prison administrators.  Just this year, I made a goal to start a college fund for grandchildren I’ve yet to meet.  And probably the most life-changing thing I’ve done is fully accept myself and taken accountability for the wrongs I’ve done in my life.   

My wrongs aren’t what landed me on Death Row though.  A verdict doesn’t change the truth.  I wasn’t in the Pizza Inn the night its manager got shot and killed, and for over two decades I’ve wondered why my cousin would testify I told him I did.  I knew he must have a good reason.  Fear, maybe, is one thing I came up with, fear of what the system might do to him if he told the truth, whatever that might be.   Since my trial, I have learned his dreadlocks were at the scene of the crime.  The jury never heard that.  Maybe I wouldn’t be here if they had.  Maybe he thought we’d have to trade places if he told whatever he really knows.  At least that’s what I told myself for twenty years. 

That was before I saw what he told an investigator who sought him out in an attempt to help me.  Jesse Hill made it clear he was only interested in keeping me right here. 

Far from helping me, my cousin implicated another member of my family as a possible accomplice to the crime, and time and again brought my mother into the conversation, “His momma know he did it.  She know how that boy is.”  “My aunt did this.”  “My aunt should have gave it to you,” when asked his middle name.  “Why does my aunt keep doing this shit.”  “She need to talk to her son.  He done what he did and bragged about it.”

Hill blamed the bad blood between us on me choosing to confess to him – but the truth is, I never did that, because the truth is – I had nothing to confess.  I never saw Jesse Hill that night, and I never confessed to him that night.  Jesse Hill and Ronald Bullock both know that.  Truth doesn’t change. 

For all Hill’s fierce condemnation of me, it was a bizarre contradiction when he wanted it on record that his feelings had been hurt.  “That’s my family, it hurt me even to go in there.  I ain’t see you wrote that down.” I guess he didn’t see the irony in what he was saying.

As much as my cousin wanted to be portrayed as hurt by our familial bonds and clamored for sympathy, his defamation of my character was limitless, his agenda clear.  “I know he did it.” 

When I was a kid, I looked up to my cousin.  I looked up to him when I was a man too, and for over twenty years, I wondered ‘why?’   I still don’t know ‘why’, but it cleared up a lot when my cousin told the interviewer, “I regret even knowin’ ‘em.”

It used to be that the most meaningful word I knew was ‘family’.  The term denoted loyalty, safety, honor and trust.  It was the highest respect one could pay another.  But when a person you once admired says they regret knowing you… what’s left to say?  We aren’t family – just people who share an insignificant past.  Jesse Hill contends his version of the events on May 16, 1999, are true.  I maintain he is a liar.  Those who really know who I am – know the truth.  And my truth says a lot more about Jesse Hill than he could ever say about me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Terry Robinson often writes under the pen name ‘Chanton’, and this year he co-authored Crimson Letters, Voices From Death Row. He continues to work on his memoirs, as well as a book of fiction. Terry Robinson has always maintained his innocence, and hopes to one day prove that and walk free. Mr. Robinson can be contacted at:
Terry Robinson #0349019
Central Prison
4285 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4285

NOTE TO READER. Please contact kimberleycarter@verizon.net if you saw Terry Robinson in Wilson, NC, any time of the day or night on May 16, 1999 – or his accusers, who claimed Robinson was with them for most of the day and night. What may seem irrelevant – is often the most helpful.
Details of this case will be shared at https://walkinthoseshoes.com/category/terry-robinson/

 “The State has proved it beyond a reasonable doubt, and presented evidence that puts him there, puts him telling people what he did.  And that is enough.”

That was the prosecution during the closing argument that sent Terry Robinson to death row for a crime he has always maintained he knew nothing about.  There wasn’t any physical evidence in the case that could tie Robinson to the murder.

We don’t have to have DNA.  We have to present enough evidence so you know in your heart that he was involved, and he did this. The State has done that.

“So, convict this man. Don’t let him out.”

The jury did just that. 

Robinson was in the area of the murder that night.  It was normal for him to be in the area.  Robinson lived in Wilson, North Carolina, and he had a girlfriend who lived across the street from the Pizza Inn, where a murder occurred, not to mention friends and relatives in the surrounding area. 

DNA exists in connection to the crime, but it does not point to Terry Robinson. 

There are also two latent fingerprints and one palm print available, but they do not point to Terry Robinson.  According to the testimony of Special Agent Navarro of the NC State Bureau of Investigation, “Terry Lamont Robinson did not make any of the latent fingerprints that were of value for identification purposes.”

When asked, “The long and the short of it is, palm prints or other kinds of prints, nothing matched?”

Agent Navarro responded, “That is correct.”

There were hairs collected.  They weren’t hairs that matched Ronald Bullock, the one man who said he was involved in the crime.   They weren’t Terry Robinson’s.  According to Special Agent James Gregory, assigned to the Trace Evidence Section, when asked if he was able to find a match between what was collected at the crime scene and samples from Ronald Bullock and Terry Robinson, “I did not find any hairs that had a root attached to them that were consistent with the known head hair standards collected from the – from Terry Robinson, or Ronald Bullock.”

There was a gun associated with Terry Robinson, which Robinson doesn’t deny being connected to.  But when asked specifically if the bullets used in the murder were from the gun associated with Robinson, Special Agent Marrs responded, “It could not have been fired from that .380 pistol, State’s Exhibit Number Two.” 

Terry Robinson was not an angel.  He had a criminal record and sold drugs for a living, but the gun associated with him was not the gun used in the crime. 

The case rested with two men who accused Terry Robinson of murder.  Both of those two individuals have since contradicted their own testimony.  According to the testimony of Ronald Bullock, who accused Terry Robinson of hatching the plot to rob the Pizza Inn, pulling him into it, and eventually murdering a man in front of him, they stopped by Jesse Hill’s home before the crime.   Bullock testified that Robinson asked Jesse Hill to participate in the crime as well. 

“He said he didn’t want to be part of it.  We were crazy.”  Bullock then testified he and Robinson dropped Jesse Hill off at his mother’s home.

After Robinson’s conviction and sentence to death, Bullock had something different to say – things he didn’t share with the jury.  “Jed (Jesse Hill) gave me his dreadlocks and a headband to wear as a disguise.  Jed rode with us to the Pizza Inn and to ride behind the Pizza Inn at the apartment complex.”

Bullock went on to say that Jesse Hill, “was going to get some money for his part for the help.”  Bullock, in a written statement then described the robbery which differed from how he described it in his original testimony, and he also stated Jed said, “I want my dreadlocks back.”

That written statement, made in 2003, was how Terry Robinson first learned the dreadlocks he had heard about at his trial – belonged to Jesse Hill.  The dreadlocks used as the murderer’s disguise, were actually made of hair that belonged to one of his accusers.  A jury never heard that.  They actually heard Jesse Hill described by the prosecution as an innocent ‘hero’ who received nothing for his help with the case.  That turned out not to be true as well.

Jesse Hill has had a few things to say since the trial also, much of which contradicts what the jury heard. 

Following is more of the closing argument from the prosecutor when he described Jesse Hill – at length. 

“Now, Jesse Hill.  If you ever wondered why people don’t want to come forward and testify in cases when they witness things, or they know things in a crime?  If you ever wondered why?  Because this man gets up there and he is trying to tell you the truth.  And all the defense can do is malign him, to go on and try to trip him up on times, which don’t matter, because he said it was light or dark or whatever, and then act like,  ‘You’ve got worthless check convictions?’ as if that would somehow equate with what happened in Boulder, Colorado when the Ramsey girl disappeared. Or, maybe a Bosnian war criminal.”

 “He knew about something that happened that was terrible, and he could not live with the fact that they had told him about it, he knew about it, and he knew it was wrong.”

“This man is a hero.”

“He testified against his cousin, and he’s getting nothing out of it.  And, don’t you know that if he was getting something out of it, both of these men would have brought it up.  But, no, they want you to become cynical.  They want you to look at everything, even when a man is trying to do the right thing, they want you to look at it like, ‘Well, what’s he getting out of it?’”

“Did Bullock ever come forward and say, ‘Well, yeah, Hill was involved, too.  He did so-and-so.’  Which they’re going to try and make you believe, which isn’t true.”

It turns out… the prosecution was mistaken.   Ronald Bullock has since stated Jesse Hill was involved, from the planning, to supplying a disguise, to being promised a cut, only the jury never heard that part.

If Terry Robinson had known anything about the murder at the Pizza Inn on May 16, 1999, if he had gone to Jesse Hill’s home prior to the crime, taken Jesse Hill’s dreadlocks and worn them in the Pizza Inn while he murdered somebody – it stands to reason he would have nudged his attorney when the dreadlocks were submitted as evidence at his trial.  It stands to reason he would have said, “Hey, that hair right there belonged to Jesse Hill.” It stands to reason, facing a death sentence, Robinson would have indicated the man being hailed as a ‘hero’ was involved in the crime and his hair was found at the crime scene.  It also stands to reason – Terry Robinson didn’t say anything because he didn’t know where the dreadlocks came from at that point in time.

In 2003, eight days after Ronald Bullock told an investigator the dreadlocks belonged to Jesse Hill, Hill confirmed the dreads where his, saying he supplied the dreadlocks to Ronald Bullock for a disguise, and that they were his hair.  He also told the investigator he had told the police and the prosecutors about supplying the dreadlocks, but he didn’t remember when he told them.  In addition, Jesse Hill said he received $5,000 for his help in the case.

Over the years, Jesse Hill, has been interviewed on a couple occasions.  According to the original case file in 1999, Hill initially called police and told them Ronald Bullock and Terry Robinson were responsible for what took place at the Pizza Inn, and after sharing that information with police, Hill then drove with them to show them where Bullock lived.  More recently he remembers it differently, saying Bullock turned himself in, “I heard he called the police while I was at my sister’s house.”  “I heard he called them, they came down there and they locked him up.”

In contrast to Bullock’s 2003 statement regarding Hill’s involvement, Jesse Hill is adamant he had nothing to do with what took place that night in spite of his own 2003 interview with an investigator in which he admitted supplying the disguise.  “That man had a family.  You don’t do stuff like that.   Get a job.  I had a job.  They coulda had a job, they coulda worked.   They didn’t have to do what they did.  Come on, man.”

When asked about Bullock’s statement regarding a cut of the money from the planned robbery, “No!  I don’t know nothin’ about no money.  Come on, man.”

Although they don’t agree on a lot there is one thing the two agree on.   Jesse Hill and Ronald Bullock both agree Terry Robinson shot and killed a man on May 16, 1999. 

Several years ago, when asked if he would have testified in court about the dreads if he had been asked, Jesse Hill responded, “Sure, if he asked me, yeah.”

But – neither attorney did ask him.  So, the jury never heard Jesse Hill, the ‘hero’, was involved in the crime. 

Jesse Hill, in contrast to what he said years earlier when he admitted to supplying a disguise for the crime, later said, “They did it them self, they need to handle it.”  “They robbed that place because they want to.  I ain’t got nothing to do with that.”

He even seems to have a different perspective of who went to the police, “Montrel was with him.  Montrel the one told people what happened.  That’s why they had so much on him.   Cause he was with him.  Shit, it ain’t got nothin’ to do with me and nobody else.”

I have reached out to Ronald Bullock and Jesse Hill for a response, but have not heard back.  I’ve also reached out to the public, and I am doing so again.  If you saw Terry Robinson at any time during the day or night of May 16, 1999, please contact me at kimberleycarter@verizon.net.   According to Robinson’s accusers, he was with them the entire day from midday through approximately midnight. 

The above photograph was shared with me by Terry Robinson’s mother, who has quietly stood by her son’s side for over two decades. She told me Robinson was about fifteen years old in the photograph. He is second from the left with the white hat on, and had been working in the tobacco field that day. Although not asked, Jesse Hill also spoke of Terry Robinson’s mother several times.

“His mama know how that boy is.  I don’t know why she’s trippin’.”
“She know how her son was.”

Terry Robinson writes for WITS when he is not working on other various projects. You can read some of his work here. He has also co-authored Crimson Letters, available on Amazon. Details of his case can be found here. Mr. Robinson can be contacted at:

Terry Robinson #0349019
Central Prison
4285 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4285

Two men have formally admitted some form of involvement in the attempted robbery that led to the death of John Rushton, a man murdered in the Pizza Inn in Wilson, NC, over twenty years ago.  One of those two men, Ronald Bullock, pled guilty to Attempted Armed Robbery and Aiding and Abetting Voluntary Manslaughter, acknowledging he was present at the Pizza Inn that night, although there were inconsistencies between his statement, testimony and later statement – not to mention contradictions of the other key witness .  He is a free man today. 

The other man, Jesse Hill, never told the jury he was involved at all, quite the opposite.  He testified that Ronald Bullock and Terry Robinson stopped by his home earlier that day and then drove him to his grandmama’s house.   He then went on to describe the accused, Terry Robinson, coming back to his home later, telling him, “I can’t – don’t say nothing about it, ‘cause there is a body involved.”  Hill then testified he didn’t believe any of that, and he merely wanted to go back to sleep. 

When Jesse Hill was questioned during Terry Robinson’s trial about his reaction to hearing someone had been shot, he expressed disbelief.  “So, I was just like, well, you shot him.  I went on to bed.  It wasn’t nothing to me.”

Jesse Hill was questioned about a reward as well. 

Q.           Now, when you talked to Detective Bass, did you ask him about any reward that you might get?

A.            No.

Q.           Have you ever asked anybody about any reward you might get?

A.            No.

Q.           Have you ever applied for any reward?

A.            No.

Q.           For giving this information?

A.            No.

After the trial was over, Jesse Hill told an investigator that he was given a check for $5,000 by a detective as a reward for his role in the case.

Also after the trial, in contrast to Hill’s testimony portraying himself as unaware of anything and going to visit his grandmama, Ronald Bullock made a statement claiming Jesse Hill was actually involved in the planning of the Pizza Inn robbery.  Bullock claimed Hill was supposed to get a cut from the money.

After confronted with that information a few days after Bullock made that statement, Hill admitted to supplying Bullock with a disguise for the robbery.

All of this took place after the trial and unbeknownst to the jury.

Throughout his trial testimony, Jesse Hill portrayed himself as having no involvement or knowledge of the planned robbery. 

Q.           Okay.  And then when they said what they said they were going to do, you didn’t believe them, did you?

A.            Not really.

Q.           You didn’t believe they were gonna (sic) do it?

A.            No.

Jesse Hill went on to, again, testify regarding his disbelief after the fact about what happened.

Q.           And you still didn’t believe that they had done it, did you?

A.            Not – I was asleep, really, so —

Q.           You woke up and they talked to you, didn’t they, Mr. Hill?

A.            Yeah, they talked to me, but I still didn’t really believe it.  ‘Cause a lot of people can tell you anything, and you don’t have to believe everything you hear.

The jury must have believed Jesse Hill, even though he later told an investigator he knew of the planned robbery and had supplied a disguise for Ronald Bullock.  More than that, if Ronald Bullock’s statement is to be believed – Jesse Hill actually rode with him prior to the robbery and even went behind the Pizza Inn that day as they planned the crime.

Mr. Hill repeatedly voiced his disbelief in all that was going to take place before and after the attempted robbery and murder.

Q.           Okay.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but when they told you about it earlier in the day, you said:  “I don’t believe they were gonna (sic) do it.”;  “I didn’t believe them.”

A.            No.

Q.           After they came back, whatever time of day that was, the same day, May 16^th, you still didn’t believe them, right?

A.            No.

Mr. Hill repeatedly maintained no knowledge of the crime under oath.

Q.           But, when he said that, you still didn’t believe he had had anything to do with the Pizza Inn robbery and murder, did you?

A.            Naw, ‘cause I ain’t heard nothing about no Pizza Inn robbery at that time.

The testimony of Ronald Bullock and Jesse Hill was the basis of Terry Robinson’s murder conviction and death sentence.  Robinson has been on death row for twenty years, and during that time he has steadfastly maintained his innocence.  Of the three men – he is the only one who has always said he had no involvement. There was no physical evidence to tie Terry Robinson to the scene, and Jesse Hill and Ronald Bullock were the foundation of the prosecution’s case.   Robinson’s death sentence was based on Bullock’s and Hill’s credibility – yet deception has been documented.   There were also inconsistencies and contradictions in their earlier statements to police. 

If anyone saw Terry Robinson or anyone who accused him of murder that day, please contact me at kimberleycarter@verizon.net. 

Mr. Robinson is also a writer, which is how he become involved with WITS.  You can read his work here, and he can be contacted at:

Terry Robinson #0349019
Central Prison
4285 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4285

Terry Robinson has quietly maintained his innocence for two decades, and many would prefer it remain that way – quiet.  It’s easier.  For Robinson to be innocent, someone has to be guilty.  When a death sentence weighs heavily on the word of family or close friends – there is typically silence.  I’ve heard it described as ‘the dark time’ by different families from different parts of the country.  Time marches on, no one talks, families break apart.  To defend the one accused – is to imply the accuser did the unthinkable. 

This is some of what happened twenty years ago.

A man was killed in 1999, and a family lost him forever at the hands of someone.  Mary Hoskins, Terry Robinson’s mother, also lost her son.  And so began the dark time, and I imagine she wasn’t able to grieve openly, the way a mother should.   No one talks.  No one compares statements. No one reads the testimony.  As the saying goes – let sleeping dogs lie.  Sometimes the truth gets buried in the silence.

Mary Hoskins could have concocted an alibi for her son when she was interviewed by police, but she didn’t.  Out of all the interviews and statements, hers had to be the most difficult and because of that, probably the most accurate.  She knew what she said could impact her son – for better or worse.  As hard as it was, she didn’t give Robinson an ‘out’ for the time of the crime – she told what she knew.  That very fact, speaks to her integrity.  And when she became aware police were looking for her son – she tried her best to give them information on where they might find him.  She didn’t want him hurt in the search.  Following is the interview of Mary Hoskins:

Mrs. Hoskins stated that she is the mother of Terry Robinson, and that back on the Sunday that this incident happened, she stated that she had got off of work around 3:30 PM.  She stated that she works at the N.C. Special Care Center, and that when she got home, that Terry and his girlfriend, Shahara, were there.   She stated that she’s not sure of what time they left, but that it was still light outside.  She stated that Montreal Bullock who lives next door to them came over, and she thinks that Terry and Shahara left with him.  Mrs. Hoskins stated that she didn’t see Terry again until the next night. She stated that Shahara told her that they went to her mother’s house, and her mother brought them back out to her house and they stayed in the barn that Sunday night.

The defense didn’t call any witnesses, so although Mary Hoskin’s interview could have called into question the credibility of Ronald Bullock and Jesse Hill – Mary wasn’t given that opportunity.  No defense was presented.

Sophia Hoskins, Robinson’s sister, was also interviewed by police.   She didn’t give her brother an alibi or say what she thought might help defend him.  She gave a brief, credible interview.

Sophia stated that Terry is her brother, and that on Sunday afternoon that Terry and Shahara were at the house. She stated that she left to go to work at Harris Teeter around 4:30 P.M. and that she got off work that night around 9:30 P.M.  She stated that when she got home, that she went to the bathroom, and then to her bedroom. She stated that she didn’t see Terry or Shahara after she got back from work.

Again, the defense chose not to call Sophia Hoskins to the stand, although her interview contradicts the trial testimony of Ronald Bullock and Jesse Hill, who both told police that Robinson was with Ronald Bullock organizing a robbery on Sunday afternoon and not with his girlfriend.  Jesse Hill was interviewed by police and said that Ronald Bullock and Terry Robinson were at his house at 3:00 discussing the plans and asking him to participate.

The jury never heard anything regarding the interviews of Mary Hoskins or Sophia Hoskins, nor did the defense call them to testify.  Nor was the jury given the opportunity to hear from the girlfriend who was said to have spent time with Robinson for a good part of that day – although it appears investigators didn’t even interview her, as I see nothing regarding that in the case file.

Instead they heard from Jesse Hill, Terry Robinson’s cousin, whose interview with police contradicted both Mary and Sophia. 

Mr. Hill stated that yesterday around 3:00 P.M. while he was on Kincaid Avenue, his two cousins, Terry Robinson and Montreal Bullock came over in a gray four door car.  He stated that they told him that they needed some money, and that they were going to rob the Pizza Inn.  Mr. Hill stated that he told them they were crazy.  Mr. Hill stated that they then took him over to his mother’s house on Stantonsbury Road and dropped him off.  He stated that later that night he asked his sister to take him back over on Kincaid Avenue.

The above interview goes on and contradicts Mr. Hill’s own trial testimony on some points, as well as contradicting Mr. Bullock’s trial testimony, the other individual who testified Terry Robinson committed murder.  While stating that Terry Robinson was planning a robbery, in contrast to the information Robinson’s mother and sister had both given to the police – Jesse Hill also gave himself a solid alibi for the evening, stating he was at his mother’s house.

If the police questioned Mr. Hill’s mother, I have not been able to find those records. 

Without a defense, the prosecution didn’t have to deal with any of the contradictions.  But the reality is, Terry Robinson couldn’t have been planning a robbery with Bullock and Hill at 3:00 that afternoon if he was at his mother’s home with his girlfriend.  The jury didn’t get the opportunity to decide who they believed because they were never presented any of that information.

Terry Robinson was sentenced to death two decades ago and has spent every day since then on death row.   If anybody has any information regarding the whereabouts of Terry Robinson or his accusers on any part of Sunday, May 16, 1999, please contact me.  kimberleycarter@verizon.net