Man alleges Detroit police framed him for 1992 slaying
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, referring to the shooting of a friend outside a burger dive. “They switched the bullets on me.”