A man spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The statement is bound to send chills down anyone's spine but this has been Kevin Dugar's reality for nearly two decades. Mr Dugar, who is a resident of Chicago, was convicted in 2005 and was sentenced to 54 years in prison for murder. But last week, he walked out of the Cook County jail following a revelation by his twin brother, Karl Smith. Mr Dugar's release came as a result of a letter Mr Smith sent, confessing to the gang-related shooting that confined his brother behind bars for 20 years.
Had it not been for Mr Smith's confession letter, Mr Dugar would have remained incarcerated well into his 70s.
As per The Guardian, the brothers had always been inseparable – so much so that even relatives, friends, and teachers could not always tell them apart. The two, however, had different surnames as Mr Smith took his mother's maiden name. As men in their 20s, the duo turned to selling drugs in Chicago. Even here, they were referred to as one entity: “Twin.”
Gang-related violence followed. Things changed for the twins when a gunman opened fire on three people in Chicago's Uptown area, killing one man and wounding another. The police nabbed Mr Dugar, who maintained his innocence and refused a plea deal for a reduced jail term of 11 years. At that point, Mr Dugar even asked his twin if he had a hand to play in the murder. Mr Smith denied everything, and his brother believed him.
Mr Smith, who as per Sky News is already serving a 99-year sentence for a separate armed robbery that resulted in the death of a six-year-old boy, confessed to the crime in 2013. In the letter – which came almost a decade too late – Mr Smith said that before it killed him, he needed to get it off his chest, and even sought forgiveness from Mr Dugar.
“First off, I'd like to say I'm sorry for all these years you've missed out of your daughter's life and also for all the pain you've endured over the last decade or so,” he wrote, adding, “Look Kevin, please don't tell Momma or Dad. Let me be the one to tell them.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, in 2014, he signed a sworn confession. However, in 2018 a judge ruled that Mr Smith's confessions were not credible and refused his brother a new trial, The Chicago Tribune reported. The court cited Mr Smith's 99-year prison sentence as one of the reasons, opining that Mr Smith had “nothing to lose” by now claiming he was the shooter and thereby saving his brother.
However, in April 2021, the Court of Appeals granted Mr Dugar a new trial, this time before a different judge. On 25 January, he was granted bond and is currently at a residential transitional facility. The Cook County state's attorney's office has not revealed if they intend to drop the case.
As per Mr Dugar's lawyer, Ronald Safer, he was “pretty overwhelmed” at being able to walk out of prison and hug his family.
