Incomplete Sentences: Sentenced to Life at 15, Jermaine Hicks Now Teaches the Lesson He Never Learned

• Since its March launch, Incomplete Sentences has examined how missing context shapes court sentences and the stories that outlast them.
• The third chapter of the yearlong, collaborative storytelling campaign by The Millbrook Companies and Lone Star Justice Alliance spotlights a childhood the court never examined.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Jermaine Hicks was 15 when a Texas court certified him to stand trial as an adult and sentenced him to mandatory life in prison. Today, The Millbrook Companies and Lone Star Justice Alliance (LSJA) share his story as the third featured chapter of "Incomplete Sentences," a yearlong social impact initiative that asks what judicial verdicts fail to consider when a person's life is reduced to a single moment in time.

Hicks, now 47 years old, was convicted in 1994 of capital murder under Texas's Law of Parties, a statute that can hold a participant in a crime as responsible as the person who committed the killing, for his role in a robbery in which another teenager fired the fatal shot. Hicks has written about his remorse for the life that was lost, and he does not ask to be excused for it. Now 47, he has spent more than three decades in Texas prisons, where he teaches other incarcerated men the skills no one taught him as a child.

"Jermaine's story asks what a court might have understood about a 15-year-old if anyone had looked," said Incomplete Sentences campaign lead Mary Lima, an Account Director at Millbrook agency Status Labs. "None of what happened to him as a child excuses what happened in 1994, and Jermaine is the first to say so. But when that history is left out, we are bound to continue sentencing children without ever asking what happened to them first. We're grateful to Jermaine for his candor."

Born in 1979 in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Hicks spent his early years moving between Michigan, Florida and Texas as his parents struggled to hold a household together. As a young child, he entered the child welfare system and was moved through multiple foster homes, some marked by neglect and abuse. His family eventually settled in San Antonio's East Terrace housing project, where gang culture was, in his words, "so deeply rooted you would become a part of it simply by living in an area of gangs." The gang offered the belonging and continuity no adult in his life had.

Asked what might have changed his path, Hicks said he never had a mentor he could look up to – "somebody who was really doing good."

"I think I would have listened," he said.

Hicks arrived in prison unable to read or write. He taught himself with a dictionary, taping unfamiliar words to his cell wall until they became part of how he spoke and thought. Reading led him to history, and history led him to question the gang identity he had carried since adolescence.

He has since earned his GED and a trade certification, completed restorative justice programming through Bridges To Life, served as a unit leader with the nonprofit EPICENTER and helped create Resilient News, a newsletter distributed at the Giddings State School to steer young people away from gang violence. Today he works as a Peer Educator and Life Coach, teaching a Cognitive Life Skills class to fellow incarcerated men.

"My change is real," Hicks said. "I can't change what happened in 1994 as a 15-year-old kid, but today is under my control. I'm not that lost, uneducated child running through the 'hood looking for an identity. I'm Jermaine Hicks, a leader and an advocate for the young."

Hicks's early life mirrors what researchers have found across the juvenile justice system. A study of 64,329 young people in Florida's juvenile justice system found that 67.5% of those with any adverse childhood experience had four or more, compared with roughly 26% in general population studies.

The science of adolescent decision-making has also shifted since his trial. The U.S. Supreme Court held in Miller v. Alabama that "the signature qualities of youth are transient," and the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior has since concluded there is "no basis in science to reliably determine that an individual youth at the time of sentencing in adolescence is incapable of rehabilitation."

The stakes are not only historical. Under current Texas law, people sentenced to life for offenses committed as minors may serve up to 40 years before they can be considered for parole. Second Look legislation, which passed the Texas House 102 to 45 in May 2025 before stalling in the Senate, would shorten that wait to 20 years and provide a mechanism for the parole board to weigh "any growth or maturity shown since the offense."¹ Lawmakers return to Austin in January 2027.

"When Jermaine was certified as an adult, the court never truly reconciled the child in front of it, including the instability that shaped his early life," said Elizabeth A. Henneke, founder and CEO of Lone Star Justice Alliance. "Three decades later the science is clear that young people grow and change, and Jermaine is proof of it."

Throughout the next few months, the Incomplete Sentences website and social channels will feature Jermaine's own writing, long-form storytelling about his path from a San Antonio housing project to the front of a prison classroom, and new Research and Resources content on how childhood trauma and adolescent development intersect with the justice system.

Find out how you can get involved and support Incomplete Sentences by visiting www.incompletesentences.org and following @our_incomplete_sentences on Instagram.

Interviews with LSJA leadership and Incomplete Sentences campaign representatives, photos, and excerpts of Hicks's writing are available upon request.

ABOUT THE MILLBROOK COMPANIES
The Millbrook Companies is a technology-driven collective of specialized service brands spanning digital reputation management, performance marketing, and strategic advisory. Through our portfolio of agencies – Status Labs, BLP, and Sensei Advisory – we offer consolidated access to AI-enabled integrated strategies to help clients shape perception and grow with intelligence. To learn more, visit MillbrookCompanies.com.

ABOUT LONE STAR JUSTICE ALLIANCE
Lone Star Justice Alliance (LSJA) boldly addresses systemic failures in the justice system through advocacy and innovative evidence-based programs that improve life outcomes for youth and emerging adults. LSJA transforms the criminal legal system through strategic litigation, advocacy, and community-based programs. LSJA envisions a justice system that's fair, humane, and tailored to young people, one that supports their growth, respects their dignity, and keeps communities safe, all while using resources wisely.

¹ Texas Legislature Online, House Bill 200, 89th Legislature, Regular Session (2025), https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB200 

Media Contact:
Juliette Haas
[email protected]

SOURCE Millbrook Companies