A man that spent nearly 23 years in prison for a double homicide that he did not commit has been awarded $1.5 million.

Lamonte McIntyre, the victim, was just 17 years old when he was convicted and sentenced to life for a crime that he did not commit.

Lamonte was wrongfully committed for the murders of Donald Ewing and Doniel Quinn in 1994.

After spending 23 years in jail, Lamonte was exonerated in October 2017 after the Wyandotte Country court reviewed his case.

Lamonte was 41 when the authorities released him from jail.

The man spent more than half his life behind bars for a crime that he did not even commit.

In 2019, Lamonte filed a lawsuit against the state of Kansas under the mistaken-conviction statute, a law that was passed in the year 2018.

Lamonte McIntyre on the wrongful conviction rate:

"I'm a guy who sees a fire and I want to put it out. So if it's too big for me to put out by myself…I kind of expect the help of my community to help me put this fire out."@KMBC pic.twitter.com/86R0SLsL7M

— Keleigh Gibbs (@KGibbsKMBC) February 26, 2020

The statute permits those who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned to seek monetary damages from the state.

Lamonte gave testimony in support of his measure before a state Senate committee in the year 2018.

On February 24, 2020, the attorney general’s office resolved the lawsuit and reached an agreed resolution of a mistaken-conviction lawsuit.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt said, “We are committed to faithfully administering the state’s mistaken-conviction law as the legislature wrote it. In this case, our office worked diligently to obtain and review all available evidence, including evidence identified but not provided in the earlier judicial proceedings.”

Attorney General Schmidt added, “We were ultimately able to resolve all issues, satisfy all of the statute’s requirements, and agree to this outcome so Mr. McIntyre can receive the benefits to which he is entitled by law because of his mistaken conviction.”

Lamonte also got a compensation of $1,553,379.45.

Lamonte was also granted counseling, a Certificate of Innocence, and permission to participate in a state health care benefits program for this year and next year.

Lamonte also had tuition and attendance fees at a postsecondary institution waived for up to 130 credit hours.

The man paid for his college education while was in prison.

After being released from prison, Lamonte said:

“The state of Kansas took away 23 years of my life and has given me nothing to rebuild. The state took away my youth. It took away every birthday and Christmas with my family, and every hard time when they needed me and I couldn’t be there. I missed joyful occasions and I missed sad ones too. I had nieces and nephews born while I was in custody who are young men and women now. I missed their entire childhoods. I was not able to comfort my mother when she buried her father, my beloved grandfather.”

After getting released from prison, the 41-year-old man founded the Miracle of Innocence, a non-profit organization that works to help those people that have been wrongfully convicted.