DETROIT (AP) — A Michigan man exonerated in the 1985 arson-related slayings of his wife and young daughters will receive $1.3 million from the state after fighting to get compensation under a law his case helped inspire.

Attorney General Dana Nessel on Thursday approved the award for David Gavitt under the state’s Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act. Gavitt, 61, of Ionia, spent 26 years in prison, from 1986 to 2012, before a county prosecutor agreed that the arson evidence behind his conviction no longer was credible.

Thirty-two states pay people rebuilding their lives after being wrongly convicted.