A Michigan man has been paid out US$1.5 million for spending more than four decades behind bars for murder he didn't commit.



Richard Phillips, now 73, was imprisoned in 1972 for allegedly shooting a man after pulling him out of a car, but Phillips had always protested his innocence, CNN reports.

"I'd rather die in prison, that admit to a murder I did not do," he reportedly told his attorney at the time.

In 2010, another man admitted to the murder, and in 2017, Phillips went to trial again before being releaesed in March 2018.

On Tuesday (local time), it was announced that Phillips will receive up to US$50,000 for each year he was imprisoned.

"This is great news, and was absolutely the thing to do," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement.

"While this compensation will not bring back the 45 years that he unjustly served in prison, it is my sincere hope that it will bring a well-deserved and fulfilling quality of life to him."

Phillips spent more time in prison than any other falsely incarcerated person in America, CNN reports

Newshub.