Chicago man spent 20 years in prison! Released after his twin brother confessed to the murder: “I have to lighten my soul and ask for forgiveness”
Chicago, Illinois – The brother who actually committed the murder ended up in prison for another crime, but there he “found God” and decided to relieve his soul.
The man, who was wrongly convicted of murder, was released from prison after 20 years, after his twin brother admitted that he was in fact the perpetrator of the crime, writes “Daily Mail”.
Kevin Dugar, 44, was released from prison in Chicago this week, nine years after his twin brother Carl Smith, in a letter sent to him, confessed to the 2003 murder.
“I must relieve my soul before it kills me,” Smith wrote in 2013. “I just want to confess and I pray you will forgive me.”
Smith even signed an official statement and contacted Dugar’s lawyers, but the judge in 2018 refused to retry the trial because Smith pleaded guilty to serving a 99-year sentence for breaking into a house in 2008, when 6 -a year-old girl was wounded in the head.
Andy Vermaut shares: Chicago man who spent nearly 20 years in prison for murder released after twin brother confesses to crime: Convicted Chicago felon Kevin Dugar who spent… https://t.co/Bq4aQDAgNv Thank you. #ThankYouJournalistsForTheNewsWeGetFromYou #AndyVermautThanksYou pic.twitter.com/2G1aVGwrO2
– Andy Vermaut (@AndyVermaut) January 27, 2022
Smith stated that his brother, who was later unjustly convicted, left the party where they were together and that he was not present when the shooting took place. He also admitted that he later returned home, changed his clothes and continued to visit clubs with his brother.
He later admitted that he did not say anything at the trial because he did not believe his brother would be convicted. After he ended up in prison, he said that he had found God there and felt the need to make things right.
However, the judge assessed the confession as completely unreliable, because the brothers often pretended to be each other and that there was a pattern of false representation and deception.
Until the eighth grade, the twins dressed the same, handing out socks, shoes and even sandwiches, their mother said in 2016. The brothers often viewed them as one person.
As CWC client, Kevin Dugar, pulled away from Cook County Jail, he enjoyed a plateful of chicken wings- his first meal back in the free world. pic.twitter.com/Rndkqy9Ez9
– CenterOnWrongfulConvictions (@NorthwesternCWC) January 27, 2022
Smith even had trouble identifying himself in photos shown to him during his 2016 trial.
Their mother, Judy Dugar, attended Smith’s testimony and was very upset when the prosecution did not believe her son. “He would not lie about such a thing,” she said.
The verdict was later overturned by the appellate court after the Center for Miscarriages of Appeals appealed the case, and the new judge ruled that the jury would certainly change the verdict when it heard new evidence.
Dugar, according to the conditions for release, will stay in a transitional residential building for the first 90 days.
