A Detroit man has walked out of prison after 25 years after tests showed he was convicted of murder with sham evidence.
The Latest on a decision to throw out a Detroit man’s murder conviction after 25 years (all times local) :
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12: 25 p.m.
A Detroit man has walked out of prison after 25 years, after tests showed he was convicted of murder with sham evidence.
Desmond Ricks met his legal team Friday at a prison in western Michigan, a few hours after a judge threw out his conviction. New tests showed the bullets removed from a victim in 1992 don’t match the gun that was described at trial as the murder weapon.
Ricks’ case was reopened at the request of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school. He claimed he was framed by police in 1992. His suspicions grew in 2008 when the Detroit police crime lab was shut down because of bad work.
The Wayne County prosecutor’s office agreed that Ricks’ conviction should be set aside.
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8: 48 a.m.
A judge has thrown out the second-degree murder conviction of a Detroit man who accused police of framing him with phony evidence and his mother’s gun more than two decades ago.
Tests show one of the two bullets removed from the victim doesn’t match the gun that was presented to jurors back in 1992. The other bullet was too mangled for analysis.
Desmond Ricks’ case was reopened at the request of the University of Michigan law school’s Innocence Clinic.
Director David Moran tells The Associated Press that prosecutors agreed that the conviction should be overturned, and Judge Richard Skutt signed the order Friday.
Ricks, now 51 years old, was charged with shooting an acquaintance outside a Detroit fast-food restaurant. Police later arrested him and seized his mother’s gun.
