An innocent Detroit man, who spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, was awarded $1 million this week. According to the Associated Press, a state program that compensates wrongly convicted people approved him for the payout, however he believes he deserves more.
Back in 1992, Desmond Ricks was convicted of murdering a man after a testimony from Detroit police. Officers said the bullets found in Mr. Ricks’s alleged weapon were the same bullets found in the body, but that was all a lie. In June 2017, the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school helped prove that the police switched the bullets.
“This is as bad a frame job as anything I have ever seen by police,” his attorney Wolf Mueller said. “Since the officers cannot be put in prison, this is the only way to begin to right a horrific misconduct and the harm to our criminal justice system.”
As far as his settlement, Ricks wants an additional $216,000, and he’s also suing the officers in the case for $125 million. “(There’s) like a 26-year-old person inside of me that wants to get out, but he can’t come out, you know? He’s 51 now,” he told reporters. “So I have to battle… I have to do certain things that 51-year-old men do, and I can’t do certain things that 26-year-old men do. I’m like a new child; I just want to go and see and do, but I have to keep things in moderation.”
Despite the circumstances, Ricks said he’s not bitter. “Because I have to understand that being bitter and angry is now going to get me anywhere. You know, who wants to be around a bitter, angry old man? No, no one wants to be around that; that’s not fun,” he said. “I can’t take that around my children and grandchildren, I don’t even know them. I’m trying to build a relationship with them; I’m not trying to alienate myself from them.”
Roommates, how much money do you think he deserves?
TSR STAFF: Myeisha E.! @myeisha.essex
