Remembering Thomas Gilbert: A Fight for Freedom That Never Ended

It is with profound sadness that we share that our client, Thomas Gilbert, passed away on August 30, 2026, while still incarcerated.

Thomas spent more than half a century in prison for a crime IPF has long maintained he did not commit. He was just 20 years old when he was arrested in 1973 and was later sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. Three years after his conviction, Allen Hicks confessed to committing the crime with William Watson and exculpated Thomas. A subsequent State investigation uncovered additional evidence supporting Thomas’ innocence, yet he remained incarcerated.

Over the decades, the evidence supporting Thomas only grew. Both Hicks and Watson made statements implicating themselves, and witnesses provided information supporting Thomas’ innocence. IPF continued pursuing every available avenue to bring him home.

But time was something Thomas could never get back.

Thomas (L) and his brother, Ralph (R)

As the years passed, his physical and cognitive health significantly declined. In his final years, the fight for Thomas became not only a fight to correct the injustice of his wrongful conviction, but also a fight to ensure that an aging man received the care and dignity he deserved. Most recently, IPF had been working with the Health Services Administrator at Zephyrhills Correctional Institution to pursue a conditional release that would have allowed Thomas to spend his remaining time surrounded by family.

That day never came.

A Family That Never Stopped Fighting

Throughout Thomas’ incarceration, his family never abandoned him. His siblings, son, and extended family remained involved in his life and, to the very best of their ability, fought tirelessly to bring him home.

In 2024, when Thomas was 71, IPF launched a public campaign calling for his freedom. We shared his case with our community and asked you to stand alongside Thomas and his family. Almost 1,000 people answered that call and signed our petition.

We remain deeply grateful to everyone who read Thomas’ story, shared it, signed his petition, donated, or simply believed that, after so many decades, he deserved the opportunity to come home.

We are devastated that this is how his story ended.

Thomas Gilbert's family in 2024

The Devastating Cost of Injustice

Thomas’ death is a painful reminder of a reality faced by many of our clients: the fight for freedom happens while time continues moving forward.

Our clients age. Their bodies change. Their health declines. Family members grow older and pass away. And while legal battles can stretch across years and decades, the people at the center of them do not have unlimited time. Thomas spent more than 50 years incarcerated while evidence supporting his innocence existed. The 1977 investigation alone uncovered evidence pointing to Hicks’ involvement and away from Thomas, yet it did not result in his freedom.

IPF continued pursuing legal avenues to bring Thomas home, but the State opposed our most recent efforts to overturn his wrongful conviction. Tragically, before we could present our only living witness to the court, that witness was murdered. His death dealt a devastating blow to Thomas’ case and our ability to obtain the relief we believed the evidence warranted.

Even after that setback, we did not stop fighting for Thomas. As his health declined, our efforts increasingly focused on finding another path to bring him home, including pursuing conditional release so that he could spend his remaining time surrounded by family.

Until the very end, IPF continued working to bring Thomas home. His family continued fighting beside him. They never stopped believing he belonged with them. We desperately wish we could be sharing photographs of Thomas walking into the arms of his family instead of writing these words.

After struggling for so long, we hope Thomas is finally at peace.

His legacy will live on through his family, through everyone who stood with him, and through our continued commitment to the people who are still waiting for freedom. Thomas Gilbert deserved to come home. We will remember him; we will honor his family’s fight, and we will continue this work in his honor.