He has spent 45 years in prison by mistake and will receive significant financial compensation

May 21, 2019

The American was jailed for a crime that he did not commit and now the state will grant him a considerable sum of money as compensation.

In October 1972, Richard Phillips He was sentenced to life imprisonment for a shooting in the Detroit area in 1971. However, 45 years later, he was exonerated and this year he was confirmed that he would receive $ 1.5 million as compensation..

The American was jailed for a crime not committed and the Michigan Attorney General said the first would be rewarded with this sum. "We have an obligation to offer humanitarian compensation to these men (those who have been unfairly convicted) for the damages they have suffered," said the attorney general. Dana Nessel in dialogue with AP.

After serving his sentence since 1972, in December 2017, Phillips He was laundered charges through the work of several law students from the University of Michigan, working with the Wayne County Attorney's Office.

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With his 45 years of wrongful imprisonment, the man became the innocent prisoner who spent the most time behind bars in the history of the United States.

Despite this injustice, Richard He finds in art a way to escape his reality and begins to paint. By selling small works inside the prison, he got the money to buy the supplies needed to continue painting.

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The man inside the prison did not have access to these works. That's why he sent over 400 works to a friend and started selling them in a Detroit gallery. Thus, he became a food at his 73 years and after many years as a convict.

Now Richard Phillips will be compensated by the judge after the claim by a Michigan law. There, it is stated that an exempt person can qualify for receive $ 50,000 for each year of imprisonment. Although Phillips he will be entitled only to the equivalent of 30 years in prison, since he was serving a separate sentence for armed robbery, a crime for which he also claims to be innocent.