Kevin Dugar spent 20 years in prison but was released from the Cook County Jail in Chicago on Jan. 26, 2022, after his identical twin confessed to the crime.
Dugar was imprisoned for two decades after being convicted in a 2003 fatal shooting of a rival gang member.
In 2013, Karl Smith, the twin brother, confessed to Dugar in a letter that he was the one responsible for the shooting. “I have to get it off my chest before it kills me,” Smith said in the letter. “So I’ll just come clean and pray you can forgive me.”
In 2016, Smith testified and said that he was responsible for the shooting, but the judge ruled that his admission wasn’t credible and declined to offer Dugar a new trial. Smith was already serving a 99-year sentence at the time for a home invasion that left a child shot in the head.
At the time, the prosecutor said that Smith had nothing to lose and was skeptical of his admission.
After the Center on Wrongful Convictions filed an appeal, the ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeals. A new judge said that after hearing more evidence, a jury would certainly change their mind.
As a part of Dugar’s release conditions, he will spend 90 days in a residential transitional facility.
