Michigan Lawmakers Working to Fix a Program That Failed to Compensate the Wrongfully Convicted

Men who were wrongfully convicted — Anthony Legion, Darrell Siggers, Ramon Ward, and Eric Anderson — stood before a crowd during the Organization of Exonerees Gala and Fundraiser at Huntington Tower in Detroit. In March, Anderson testified for a bill to reform the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act.

A bill moving through the Michigan House of Representatives would fix flaws in a seven-year-old compensation fund the state set up to help wrongfully convicted people rebuild their lives.

Sponsored by Rep. Joey Andrews, a Democrat, along with 14 other Democrats, the bill would be the first substantive reform of the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act’s eligibility requirements. If it becomes law, many people who would otherwise be denied compensation would become eligible for relief.

“This is going to be huge for a lot of people,” said Kenneth Nixon, co-founder and president of the nonprofit Organization of Exonerees. He spent nearly 16 years in prison before his conviction was vacated.

WICA, passed in 2016, was intended as a lifeline for people who experienced extreme injustice by offering $50,000 for each year of wrongful imprisonment. But, as a ProPublica investigation detailed, the bipartisan law’s narrow requirements have resulted in delays in compensation, partial settlements, or even complete denials. Only people whose cases are overturned based on “clear and convincing” new evidence that they weren’t a perpetrator or an accomplice have been eligible — a higher standard of proof than for other civil claims. This has meant that some former prisoners, for instance those whose convictions were overturned for insufficient evidence, can be left out.