{"id":91900,"date":"2026-01-20T19:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/91900\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T19:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:37:12","slug":"exonerated-man-opens-freedom-coffee-house-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/91900\/","title":{"rendered":"Exonerated man opens &#8216;Freedom Coffee House&#8217; in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Matteo Iadonisi Image\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/14306478_wpvi_bio_matteoiadonisi_160x200.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tuesday, January 20, 2026 5:00PM<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAJCAQAAACRI2S5AAAAEElEQVR42mNkIAAYRxWAAQAG9gAKqv6+AwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Exonerated man opens 'Freedom Coffee House' in Philadelphia\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (WPVI) &#8212; From a painful past brews a hopeful future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Once incarcerated, Eugene Gilyard fought for more than a decade to prove his innocence. <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/segments\/after-16-years-in-prison-two-men-falsely-accused-in-killing-to-share-3-million-from-philly\/ \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Upon his exoneration in 2013<\/a>, he went to school and built his life back together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Gilyard first opened &#8216;Freedom Coffee House&#8217; in North Philadelphia&#8217;s Logan section in 2025. He runs it with his family by his side and operates seven days per week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Philadelphia native relied on faith to get him through his nearly 16-year incarceration. He was aided by the Innocence Project to secure his release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Watch the video above to hear Gilyard&#8217;s story in his own words.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">To learn more about Freedom Coffee House, <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/freedomcoffeehousepa\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">visit their Instagram page.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/videoClip\/18348843\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RELATED: &#8216;Angels in Motion&#8217; helps those with substance use disorder in Kensington<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Each person on the street is someone&#8217;s child. That&#8217;s why &#8216;Angels in Motion&#8217; takes as many as possible under their wing in Kensington.<\/p>\n<p><br class=\" \"\/><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday, January 20, 2026 5:00PM PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (WPVI) &#8212; From a painful past brews a hopeful future. Once&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[45327,45328,45326,45329,45330,1399,69,71,70,2918,13435],"class_list":{"0":"post-91900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-exonerated","9":"tag-exoneree","10":"tag-freedom-coffee-house","11":"tag-incarcerated","12":"tag-innocence-project","13":"tag-man","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","16":"tag-philadelphia-news","17":"tag-small-business","18":"tag-wrongful-conviction"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}