LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) — Michigan will pay for wrongful convictions, but not twice.
That’s the recent takeaway from a state Court of Appeals ruling that says the state may recover compensation paid to exonerees if they later collect money from a separate lawsuit tied to the same case.
The decision puts Desmond Ricks on the hook to repay about $1.2 million he received from the state after spending approximately 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Ricks later secured a $7.5 million civil settlement from the City of Detroit over misconduct linked to his conviction.
In a unanimous ruling issued Dec. 22, the three-judge panel said Michigan’s Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act requires state payments to be offset when an exoneree recovers damages from another party connected to the wrongful conviction.
Ricks’ conviction unraveled after attorneys with the University of Michigan Law School’s Innocence Clinic showed that ballistics evidence used at trial could not have come from the alleged weapon. That evidence originated from Detroit’s police crime lab, which was later shut down after an audit uncovered widespread testing failures.
Ricks argued the state’s attempt to recover its money was unfair and that the statute was vague. The appellate court rejected both claims, calling the law’s offset language “clear and unambiguous.”
Whether that policy is just, the judges noted, is a question for lawmakers not the courts.