Man says Detroit police framed him for murder
DETROIT — Thumbing through a law journal, Desmond Ricks recognized the name of a gun expert whose testimony had helped convict him of murder in 1992. The Detroit man wrote a letter, made phone calls and even offered gas money to persuade him to visit prison. That tenacity could lead to freedom.
Ricks and a team from University of Michigan law school are making a remarkable claim with help from the expert: Detroit police, they allege, framed him for that slaying 25 years ago with sham evidence — bullets that didn’t come from the victim.
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had nothing to do with this,” Ricks, 50, told The Associated Press. “They switched the bullets on me.”
The law school’s Innocence Clinic, with an affidavit from firearms expert David Townshend, is urging a judge to order new tests on evidence.
Townshend, who had retired from Michigan State Police, was asked by a judge to inspect the evidence before trial.
Desmond Ricks was halfway through his 32-year prison sentence in 2009 when he recognized Townshend’s name in an ad in the back of a law journal. He reached out for help. The expert remembered the case, visited Ricks three times and told him about some nagging concerns.
The bullets in 1992 appeared to be in “pristine condition” with no trace of blood, bone or hair that would suggest they were removed from Bennett’s brain and spine, recalled Townshend, now 76.
At the Innocence Clinic’s request, the Wayne County prosecutor’s office in 2015 turned over new digital photos of bullets and fragments still in police custody. Townshend said the photos show bullets that were “severely mutilated and extensively damaged” — not the bullets he inspected years ago.
“We need to get to the truth,” Townshend said.