LANSING – Richard Phillips sat intently watching the proceedings from the gallery above the Michigan House of Representatives as the 110 legislators took a vote that could impact his future.

The 73-year-old man, dressed in a freshly pressed gray suit and tie, smiled as the lawmakers voted unanimously to add $10 million to a fund that provides compensation to people who have been wrongfully convicted.

For Phillips, the vote could mean $2.3 million for the 47 years he was locked up in prison for a Wayne County murder that he didn’t commit.

“Life is filled with adversity and sometimes you have to just roll with the punches until you can get yourself in a position to start life and that’s pretty much where I’m at now,” Phillips said after the vote. “If they give me the compensation, that’s good, and even if they don’t give it to me, my objective is to go forward and be free and be happy regardless.”

In addition to replenishing the fund, which had been depleted since the Legislature passed a law in 2016 providing $50,000 a year for every year of wrongful incarceration, the proposal also requires quarterly reports on the financial standing of the fund so it isn’t drained again.

“The most fundamental role of government is to safeguard one's right to life, liberty and property,” said Rep. Steven Johnson, R-Wayland, the sponsor of the legislation. “The worst thing that could happen would be to not safeguard those rights, but to violate those rights, too.”

Phillips was released from custody in 2017 and, in 2018, became the longest-serving U.S. inmate to win exoneration. He was cleared of a 1971 homicide after an investigation by University of Michigan law students and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy supports the compensation for Phillips, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is reviewing the case, which is being heard through the state Court of Claims.

Since its creation, $13 million has been put into the compensation fund. The balance in the fund as of March 4, 2019, was $323,800. There are 39 wrongful imprisonment claims against the state that have not received compensation, and of those, 11 have been dismissed by the Court of Claims for a variety of reasons.

Phillips has been supporting himself since his release with help from family and friends and by selling some of the 400 pieces of watercolor art that he painted in prison.

More:Michigan man exonerated after 45 years sells his prison art to get by

More:No money for wrongly convicted man in prison for 4 years

"After I was released, rather than go to alife of crime to survive, I decided to sell my artwork, which was painful because my artwork is like my children,” he said, noting it was also a lifeline while he was in prison. “The artwork took me away from the madness, the depression, the worry, the missing of my family. Once I got into it, I was able to avoid thinking about the things that were painful for me to think about.”

Once he finds out whether his compensation from the state goes through, he may use some of the money to visit an estranged daughter he hasn’t seen since she was 4 and who now lives in Paris. He also has a son who lives in Grosse Pointe.

“We have a lot to catch up on,” he said.

The bill — HB 4286 — now moves to the state Senate.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.