A wrongfully-imprisoned Detroit man has been freed, thanks to the efforts of a Mancos woman. Fifty-one-year-old Desmond Ricks was released at the end of May after 25 years in prison on a conviction for second-degree murder. Claudia Whitman, who directs the nonprofit National Capital Crime Assistance Network from her home in Mancos, spoke with Ricks in 2011 while visiting another inmate. Ricks had been convicted of a fatal shooting largely on the basis of ballistics evidence but maintained his innocence. Whitman tells KSJD she knew immediately that Ricks “was talking sense.” Whitman and the Michigan Innocence Project were able to show that the bullets presented at his trial were not the ones actually removed from the victim’s body, and Ricks was released. On Thursday, a judge said he would not be retried.
Note: Claudia Whitman is married to a member of the KSJD Board of Directors.
