Michigan is sparking outrage after ordering a Black man, wrongfully imprisoned for 25 years, to repay $1.25 million in state compensation he received following his exoneration.

​In 1992, Desmond Ricks was convicted in Detroit for the murder of Gerry Bennett. He then spent nearly three decades behind bars until the Innocence Project at the University of Michigan Law School took on his case.

His innocence was proven through ballistics evidence that didn't match the supposed murder weapon. The prosecution dismissed the charges in June 2017, and that August, Ricks filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking damages from the city of Detroit. In January 2018, through the state’s Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act (WICA), Michigan awarded him $1 million in compensation. Then, after he filed another lawsuit in 2022, the city of Detroit settled with Ricks and agreed to pay him $7.5 million.

"I'm not greedy. I'm thankful," said Ricks at the time, according to CBS.

"It's a blessing to be alive with my children and grandchildren. It was a blessing to not lose my life in there," Ricks said of prison.

Now, the Michigan Court of Appeals demands that he return the $1.25 million under the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act (WICA), which pays about $50,000 per year served, which is peanuts compared to a lost adulthood, as his lawyer Wolf Mueller argues.

State law includes a "clawback" provision to prevent so-called double-dipping when exonerees score payouts from third parties like cities or cops.

Supporters of the proviso include State Sen. Joe Bellino, who says it's essential to keep the WICA fund flush after it nearly ran dry in the past.

Many feel this is a heartless effort at the behest of the state. “Desmond Ricks endured the worst harm and suffering you can imagine," Mueller said. “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.”