Desmond Ricks spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit before his conviction was overturned and he was released.

Following his exoneration, Ricks received more than $1 million under Michigan’s Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act. The law, which took effect in 2017, pays roughly $50,000 for each year someone is wrongfully incarcerated. The compensation is intended to acknowledge what exonerees lose while behind bars.

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Ricks is one of 77 exonerees who have received compensation under the law as of July 2024. In total, Michigan has awarded nearly $52 million through these claims (1). But his attorney says no dollar amount could come close to repairing the damage.

“Desmond Ricks endured the worst harm and suffering you can imagine," his lawyer, Wolf Muller, told WXYZ Detroit (2). “25 years in a cage for a crime he didn’t commit. The compensation under the state, a million and a quarter, doesn’t come close to the harm he suffered.”

Now, the State of Michigan is asking Ricks to return that money. Here’s why.

Desmond Ricks spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit before his conviction was overturned and he was released.

Following his exoneration, Ricks received more than $1 million under Michigan’s Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act. The law, which took effect in 2017, pays roughly $50,000 for each year someone is wrongfully incarcerated. The compensation is intended to acknowledge what exonerees lose while behind bars.

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Ricks is one of 77 exonerees who have received compensation under the law as of July 2024. In total, Michigan has awarded nearly $52 million through these claims (1). But his attorney says no dollar amount could come close to repairing the damage.

“Desmond Ricks endured the worst harm and suffering you can imagine," his lawyer, Wolf Muller, told WXYZ Detroit (2). “25 years in a cage for a crime he didn’t commit. The compensation under the state, a million and a quarter, doesn’t come close to the harm he suffered.”

Now, the State of Michigan is asking Ricks to return that money. Here’s why.

Why the state is clawing the money back

The order requiring Ricks to repay his state compensation stems from a ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals, following a separate civil settlement tied to his wrongful conviction.

That settlement came from the City of Detroit, which agreed to pay Ricks $7.5 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging police misconduct. Ricks claimed officers switched bullet evidence to frame him for the 1992 murder (3).

The case was reopened in 2016 after the Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School uncovered new evidence. Tests showed the bullets recovered from the victim, Gerry Bennett, did not match the .38-caliber gun prosecutors had identified as the murder weapon.

Under Michigan law, exonerees must repay compensation received through the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act if they later recover damages from a third party tied to the same conviction. This process, known as a clawback, allows the state to reclaim money it has already paid (4).

Outside wrongful-conviction cases, clawbacks are more commonly used in corporate and financial settings, such as recouping executive bonuses after misconduct or recovering improperly paid government benefits.