by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
January 7, 2026
The man must return the money after receiving a settlement over the same crime in a civil suit.
An exonerated man who was jailed for 25 years in a Michigan prison may repay the $1 million given to him for the wrongful conviction.
Desmond Ricks spent a quarter-century in prison for the 1993 murder of Gerry Bennett, for which he was later absolved. Upon his exoneration, Ricks was offered more than $1 million under Michigan’s Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act, which was initially passed in 2017.
According to Yahoo Finance, he received around $50,000 for each year spent incarcerated. The monetary allotment sought to recognize the toll of the wrongful conviction. However, it still does not compare to the years lost behind bars. His lawyer, Wolf Muller, emphasized the suffering his client endured while in prison, stating that the compensation could never fully heal the trauma.
Desmond Ricks endured the worst harm and suffering you can imagine,” his lawyer, Wolf Muller, told WXYZ Detroit. “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.”
However, Ricks has now been ordered to return the money in a new court ruling regarding the damages he received in a civil suit. The Michigan Court of Appeals made the ruling after Ricks received a payout from a separate case regarding the murder.
Ricks won a $7.5 million settlement with the City of Detroit over alleged police misconduct in the murder investigation. He claimed that Detroit officers switched bullet evidence in an effort to frame him for the killing. New evidence unveiled by the Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School reopened the case in 2016.
Ricks’ second chance at freedom came after the discovery that bullets recovered from Bennett did not match the gun prosecutors claimed as the murder weapon. He subsequently became eligible for pay due to the Compensation Act. However, the law also stipulates that exonerees must pay back the money if they receive damages from a third party.
Deemed a clawback, this process is typically used outside criminal justice cases. However, the process is currently being applied to Rick’s situation. Given this, he cannot receive funds from both a civil settlement and a state payout. Some state lawmakers say the clawback provision is intended to ensure the fund has enough to cover compensation for all exonerees.
On the other hand, criminal justice advocates say this provision undermines the real financial difficulties faced by those recovering from wrongful convictions. Furthermore, conflating state compensation with private settlements further demeans what the unjust prison sentences have done to innocent lives.
Although Ricks actually obtained funding from the Compensation Act, payouts remain relatively scarce for exonorees. Despite most states allowing compensation for overturned convictions, less than half of these victims, 42% according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center, see any money. These factors even bleed into racial disparities within the criminal justice system. The Center confirmed 60% of all exonerees also identify as black.
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