An American man who spent nearly two decades in jail for a 2003 murder has been released years after his identical twin confessed to the crime.
Kevin Dugar was convicted in 2005 over a deadly gang-related shooting and was sentenced to 54 years in prison.
A gunman had opened fire on three people in Chicago's Uptown area, killing Antwan Carter and wounding Ronnie Bolden, according to NBC Chicago.
Mr Dugar has long maintained his innocence, refusing a plea deal that would have reduced his jail term to 11 years.
Twin writes confessional letter
His fate appeared to be sealed until his twin brother, Karl Smith, wrote him a letter in 2013 admitting he had carried out the murder.
The siblings had dressed alike until the eighth grade and had impersonated each other for years, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Their last names are different because Smith took his mother's maiden name.
Initially, the admission had little impact on Mr Dugar's case, with a judge ruling in 2018 that Smith's confession was not credible, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Prosecutors said Smith had nothing to lose by speaking up for his brother because he was already serving out a 99-year prison sentence for a home invasion that saw a child shot in the head, which he could not appeal.
A lawyer with the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Center on Wrongful Convictions took Mr Dugar's case back to court, however, and the Illinois Court of Appeals overturned that decision in 2021 - a move that eventually led to his release...
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