Nationwide — Desmond Ricks, an African American man from Detroit, Michigan, spent 25 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. After his release, he received more than $1 million from the state, but a court has now ordered him to repay that money following a separate multimillion-dollar settlement.
Ricks consistently maintained his innocence while serving decades in a Michigan state prison. When his conviction was overturned, the state compensated him under the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act, which pays about $50,000 for every year someone is wrongfully incarcerated. The payments totaled roughly $1.25 million.
His attorney, Wolf Mueller, said the amount failed to reflect the scale of what Ricks endured. “Desmond Ricks endured the worst harm and suffering you can imagine,” Mueller said, according to WXYZ. “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.”
Ricks later settled a civil lawsuit with the city of Detroit for $7.5 million. The case accused the city and two police officers of falsifying bullet evidence tied to the 1992 murder investigation that led to his conviction. After that settlement, the state demanded repayment of the WICA funds.
Michigan law requires people to return wrongful imprisonment compensation if they later receive money from a third party connected to the same case. Ricks challenged the rule, but the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the repayment requirement still applied.
State Senator Joe Bellino said the law exists to protect a fund that has struggled financially in the past. He said repayments are necessary when exonerees also win lawsuits against cities or police departments. “This was a bipartisan bill,” Bellino said. “There’s no way in the world I would vote to let someone get that money, and then get 7.5 million or whatever he got.”
Mueller said cases like Ricks’s highlight the need to change the law. “No amount of money can make up for harm of a quarter century and your entire adult life lost,” he said.
Ricks has also pointed out that the wrongful conviction cost him irreplaceable time, including the chance to watch his two daughters grow up.