Kevin Dugar twin

Kevin Dugar spendst 20 years in prison for crime commited by twin
Photo source: Illinois Department of Corrections

BETRAYAL: Man spends 20 years in prison for crime commited by twin

The man was sentenced to 54 years in prison for a murder, but his identical twin confessed to the crime in a letter

Kevin Dugar twin

Kevin Dugar spendst 20 years in prison for crime commited by twin
Photo source: Illinois Department of Corrections

Talk about a brotherly betrayal: A man who had spent close to two decades behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit has been freed after his twin brother confessed to the crime.

According New York Post, 44-year-old Kevin Dugar from Chicago, the United States (US) was released from the Cook County jail on Tuesday evening, 25 January 2022 and reunited with his loved ones as a free man.

“He is overjoyed to be free but 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,” his lawyer Ronald Safer is quoted as having said.

One person was killed and another wounded in a shooting which occurred in 2003, in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Dugar was convicted for the crime in 2005 and sentenced to 54 years in prison. He had long maintained his innocence. Ten years after the shooting, Dugar’s identical twin Karl Smith confessed to having carried out the murder in a confession that was first made in a letter to him.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the admission had no impact on Dugar’s case as judge declined to trial Smith in 2018. Smith himself had also been denied an appeal and was serving out a 99-year sentence for a home invasion that saw a child shot in the head.

It was a lawyer with the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions that took Dugar’s case back to court.

LONG ROAD AHEAD FOR KEVIN DUGAR

However, it’s far from over for Kevin Dugar, despite his identical twin brother having admitted to being responsible. The Cook Country state’s attourney is yet to drop the case, but Safer says they remain hopeful.

“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. It’s clear that he’s innocent, but if they persist we will go to trial and we will vindicate him at trial,” he said.

Dugar’s however adds that it will take some time for his client to adjust to his freedom.

“You know, you would think it’s just unmitigated joy, but the adjustment, the wounds that are inflicted by wrongful incarceration, are deep and enduring and there is an adjustment period that lasts a lifetime but particularly in the early days are very very challenging,”

Kevin Dugar’s lawyer, Ronald Shafer