• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Man who spent 20 years in prison for crime he didn’t commit released after twin brother confesses

Home> News> US News

Published 12:51 1 Oct 2023 GMT+1

Man who spent 20 years in prison for crime he didn’t commit released after twin brother confesses

The wrong twin who was put in jail for 20 years was released from prison after his brother confessed to the murder.

Anish Vij

Anish Vij

A Chicago man, who was wrongly jailed for 20 years, was released from prison after his twin brother stepped up and confessed to the murder crime.

Kevin Dugar, aged 44 when released, was convicted of a 2003 murder that involved firing a gun into a group of people, killing one and injuring another.

However, in 2013, Dugar’s identical twin Karl Smith wrote a letter, saying he was the one who fired the weapon.

Advert

Smith asked his brother to 'come clean' and to 'pray' for Dugar to forgive him.

The wrong twin who was put in jail for 20 years was released from prison after his brother confessed to the murder.
Illinois Department of Corrections

"I’m the one who shot and killed those two Black Stones on Sheridan that night. The reason I didn’t say [expletive] at the time was because I didn’t and couldn’t find the strength to do so at the time," the letter read.

The brothers dressed alike until eighth grade and had impersonated each other for years, it was heard in a Chicago court.

Advert

Smith said that growing up, the pair acted 'as one'.

"Where I was, he was, acting like each other. He pretended to be me and I pretended to be him," he explained.

After reviewing the letters in 2018, a judge said Smith was not credible and refused to throw out Dugar’s conviction and 54-year prison sentence.

Three years later, the Illinois Court of Appeals overturned that decision, an opinion that led to Dugar’s eventual release in 2022.

Advert

Dugar's attorney Ronald Safer told The New York Post how 'overjoyed' his client was to be free.

"But [he] is also adjusting to a world that is quite different from the world he left 20 years ago when he was arrested for this crime he did not commit," he said.

A Chicago man, who was wrongly jailed for 20 years, was released from prison after his twin brother stepped up and confessed to the murder crime.
ABC

Safer explained: "The Court of Appeals found that there is a strong probability that a jury hearing all of the evidence would likely find Kevin not guilty."

Advert

He added: "The judge granted his release pending trial on a signature bond, and he walked out into the open air and breathed his first breaths as a free man in almost 20 years.

"It was gratifying to watch his tears roll down his cheeks and their cheeks before (their tears) froze on their faces because it was about 7 below."

Smith is currently serving a 99-year prison sentence for an armed robbery that took place in 2008.

It resulted in a six-year-old boy being fatally shot.

Advert

The brothers have different last names because Smith took his mother’s maiden name.

Featured Image Credit: Illinois Department of Corrections

Topics: Crime, US News

Anish Vij
Anish Vij

Anish has an MA in Multimedia Journalism and is passionate about delivering sarcastic/mildly amusing content. After studying business at undergrad, Anish realised that he’d much prefer getting paid to rant about a topic, rather than to find a solution to it. Apart from that, he loves the ‘Four F’s’, as he calls it - family, friends, football and food. Email: [email protected]

X

@Anish_Vij

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

12 hours ago
13 hours ago
14 hours ago
  • 12 hours ago

    Mother's heartbreaking plea before twins, 6, were killed in aggressive tornado

    Kayleigh Bisson lost two of her daughters after a storm swept through New York

    News
  • 13 hours ago

    NASA investigation into thousands of 'dark streaks' on Martian surface changes everything it thought about the phenomenon

    Scientists used AI machine learning to help make the incredible discovery

    Technology
  • 13 hours ago

    'Living Nostradamus' gives chilling WW3 warning after Trump claims ceasefire is in effect between Iran and Israel

    Athos Salomé, a Brazilian psychic dubbed the 'Living Nostradamus', believes another key player will enter the Middle Eastern conflict

    News
  • 14 hours ago

    Tourist who was trapped 1,600ft down active volcano for days tragically dies before rescuers get to her

    Juliana Marins, from Brazil, has tragically died

    News
  • Police claim they've solved 1980 cold case murder after first suspect wrongly spent 20 years in prison
  • Innocent man who spent 30 years in prison for murder he didn't commit notices one thing about people after being released
  • Innocent man who spent 30 years in jail for murder he didn't commit reveals first thing he plans to do after being released
  • Man who spent record 100 days underwater shares proof it de-aged him by 20 years