A Chicago Black man who spent nearly 20 years in prison for a fatal shooting in 2003 has been released after his identical twin brother confessed to the murder years earlier, according to NBC News.
Kevin Dugar was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 54 years in prison for the shooting of a rival gang member. The gunman shot at three people in Uptown Chicago in March 2003, killing two people.
In 2013, Dugar’s twin brother, Karl Smith, confessed to carrying out the murder in a letter to Dugar.
From NBC News:
Initially, the admission had little impact on Dugar’s case, with a judge ruling in 2018 that Smith’s confession was not credible and declining to offer his twin a new trial, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Smith had been denied an appeal himself as he was serving out a 99-year sentence for a home invasion that saw a child shot in the head. Prosecutors questioned the motives behind his confession, telling the judge that he only came forward after a court upheld his own conviction for attempted murder, the Chicago Tribune had reported at the time.
A lawyer with the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions took Dugar’s case back to court, however. And now, after Tuesday’s ruling, he will have a second chance to prove his innocence.
Safer said he hoped the case, which he described as a “made-for-TV” tale, would not have to go to court again.
“We are hopeful that the (Cook County) state’s attorney will drop the case against Kevin and then do what they will, but drop the case against Kevin because he’s innocent,” he said. “It’s clear that he’s innocent, but if they persist we will go to trial and we will vindicate him at trial.”
According to Dugar’s lawyer, Ronald Safer, Dugar has been spending time with his family since his release as he still comes to terms with his brother’s confession.