Everyone has a story to tell, and Terry Thomas has a few.  It all started forty nine years ago, on the south side of Chicago.  Initially, I’m struck by just how ‘normal’ his childhood sounds, if there is such a thing.  He had a hard-working mom and dad, parents who wanted to educate and raise strong and independent kids.  There was a ‘hint’ that something wasn’t quite right, but I sense the Thomas children were not exposed to a lot of the tension between their parents, or maybe Terry was just too young to be aware of it.  Their father cheated, their mother didn’t like it.  There was abuse.  But – Terry remembers a middle class, loving home.

One night when Terry was twelve years old, everything he ever knew turned upside down.  He woke to the sounds of his parents arguing.  Oily and Lucille may have had issues before, but this night was different.  It was so different that Terry’s older sister gathered all four of her siblings and huddled them into the basement bathroom.  They listened as their father – the man they loved – begged for his life, followed by the sound of the gunshots that would later take his life.

Terry has memories from that night that can’t be erased.  He remembers the exact words that were spoken to his father by the police officer that arrived on the scene – “Get up, big nigga.”  That was one of Terry Thomas’ first encounters with law enforcement in Chicago.

A twelve year old boy in a middle class home lost both his parents that day.  His father, whom he loved, later died, and his mother left to serve a nearly two year sentence.

The Thomas children had to continue on after that night, each in their own way.  Terry remembers going back to school and feeling ashamed of what had taken place in his home.  He struggled to focus.  The fact that he was able to maintain any measure of stability in his life is due to his grandparents, who stepped up to take care of the children while Lucille served her sentence.  A young father himself, Terry dropped out of school at the age of seventeen to support two children of his own.

In 1988 Terry had a brush with the law.   He, along with several others, was searched, and drugs were found in the sock of his brother, Oily Thomas.  Both brothers were arrested that day, but the charges against Oily were dismissed and Terry was charged with drug possession.

In 1989, when he appeared in court for that incident, he was surprised to learn he was also arraigned on two more charges.  Those two charges claimed that Terry sold half a gram of cocaine to two undercover Chicago police officers in the same day.  Although Terry Thomas has requested the documents from the courts that support these charges, such as inventoried drugs or money, he has not been provided with any documentation of the evidence.

What he does have is an affidavit from Curtis Singleton, the man that claims to be the one that sold the drugs to the undercover officers that night.  Mr. Singleton expresses remorse – so much remorse that he completed Terry Thomas’ community service for him at the time.  In the affidavit he spoke of his regret for not standing up and taking responsibility for his actions.  He also states that he is willing to testify in court that he was the one that was actually guilty of possession with intent to distribute.

There is also an affidavit from Oily Thomas in regard to the original charge, confessing that the drugs that Terry was charged with having in his sock had actually been his.

In spite of the fact that there are affidavits signed by other individuals who admit guilt to these crimes, and also a valid argument regarding the length of time that took place between the arrests and the actual indictments, his lawyer convinced Terry to plead guilty to the crimes.

In April of 1996, trouble found him again.  He was once again arrested.   According to an affidavit by Byron Nelson, Mr. Nelson was selling drugs on the night in question, and Terry Thomas stopped by in his van.  Byron got inside.  At that point, they were approached by detectives and searched.  According to Byron Nelson, the officers found him with 37 packages of cocaine in his pocket.  Nothing was found on Terry.   They were both arrested.  When Byron Nelson tried to clear up the confusion at the police station, he states he was told to, ‘Tell it to the judge.’

Then again, in 1997, Terry found himself in trouble for drugs.  And, once again, there is an affidavit stating that Terry took the fall for someone else’s crime.  In the affidavit, Karl Merritt states that he was delivering drugs to someone when the police showed up.  Karl states he dropped his drugs and ran.  Karl says that he later found out that Terry laughed when he got away, and when questioned by the police, he wouldn’t give up his friend.  He then states that the police planted his drugs on Terry and arrested him.

There is no doubt in my mind that Terry Thomas has not been angelic.  He was often in places that he shouldn’t have been in and could have avoided some of his troubles, but he was a high school dropout becoming a man on the streets of Chicago with no parents and trying to raise kids of his own.  Having trouble around was his reality.

Sadly, the divide between citizens and those who police them in Chicago has been historically vast.  In a place that doesn’t often accept accountability there are many valid questions in the case of Terry Thomas.   Where it appears that one man seems to be continually battling with missteps with a police department, it is a police department that is notorious for missteps.  It is the very lack of consistent transparency within Chicago’s Police Department that makes Terry Thomas’ nightmare within the system possible.

There are some things that are not in question.  Terry Thomas lost his parents when he was twelve years old in a tragic manor.   He struggled to get his footing after that, which is no surprise.  Terry was a high school dropout, trying to support children when he was a child himself.  He lived in Chicago – a place where a Police Accountability Task Force has studied and documented the Police Department’s lack of accountability and transparency, not to mention targeting individuals of color.   There are several affidavits signed by individuals who clearly acknowledge their own guilt in the charges against Terry Thomas, who is now in Federal Prison and serving an additional twenty years on top of a ten year sentence for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance.   Those additional twenty years are for a combination of crimes that have signed affidavits by other individuals admitting to guilt – not to mention questions regarding the legality of the time between arrests and indictments.

Terry is scheduled for release on March 14, 2031.  He will be 62 years old at that time.

Inquiries as to the status of  the Conviction Integrity Unit’s review of Terry Thomas’ case  can be addressed to:
Kimberley Foxx
Cook County States Attorney
2650 S. California Avenue 12B13
Chicago, IL 60608

Terry Thomas can be contacted at:
Terry Thomas #16399424
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 1000
Milan, Michigan 48160