Dude i didn't do it
 

no justice

He was the spitting image of the killer, had the same first name and was near the scene of the crime at the fateful hour: Carlos DeLuna paid the ultimate price and was executed in place of someone else in Texas in 1989, a report out Tuesday found.

Even "all the relatives of both Carloses mistook them," and DeLuna was sentenced to death and executed based only on eyewitness accounts despite a range of signs he was not a guilty man, said law professor James Liebman.

Liebman and five of his students at Columbia School of Law spent almost five years poring over details of a case that he says is "emblematic" of legal system failure.

DeLuna, 27, was put to death after "a very incomplete investigation. No question that the investigation is a failure," Liebman said.

The report's authors found "numerous missteps, missed clues and missed opportunities that let authorities prosecute Carlos DeLuna for the crime of murder, despite evidence not only that he did not commit the crime but that another individual, Carlos Hernandez, did," the 780-page investigation found.

The report, entitled "Los Tocayos Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution," traces the facts surrounding the February 1983 murder of Wanda Lopez, a single mother who was stabbed in the gas station where she worked in a quiet corner of the Texas coastal city of Corpus Christi.

"Everything went wrong in this case," Liebman said.

That night Lopez called police for help twice to protect her from an individual with a switchblade.

"They could have saved her, they said 'we made this arrest immediately' to overcome the embarrassment," Liebman said.

Forty minutes after the crime Carlos DeLuna was arrested not far from the gas station.

He was identified by only one eyewitness who saw a Hispanic male running from the gas station. But DeLuna had just shaved and was wearing a white dress shirt -- unlike the killer, who an eyewitness said had a mustache and was wearing a grey flannel shirt.

Even though witnesses accounts were contradictory -- the killer was seen fleeing towards the north, while DeLuna was caught in the east -- DeLuna was arrested.

"I didn't do it, but I know who did," DeLuna said at the time, saying that he saw Carlos Hernandez entering the service station.

DeLuna said he ran from police because he was on parole and had been drinking.

Hernandez, known for using a blade in his attacks, was later jailed for murdering a woman with the same knife. But in the trial, the lead prosecutor told the jury that Hernandez was nothing but a "phantom" of DeLuna's imagination.

DeLuna's budget attorney even said that it was probable that Carlos Hernandez never existed.

However in 1986 a local newspaper published a photograph of Hernandez in an article on the DeLuna case, Liebman said.

Following hasty trial DeLuna was executed by lethal injection in 1989.

Up to the day he died in prison of cirrhosis of the liver, Hernandez repeatedly admitted to murdering Wanda Lopez, Liebman said.

"Unfortunately, the flaws in the system that wrongfully convicted and executed DeLuna -- faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation and prosecutorial misconduct -- continue to send innocent men to their death today," read a statement that accompanies the report. full article...

Well that would really suck.

.

The whole thing sucks, but I'm still trying to grasp this part:

All the relatives? It's not like they were twin brothers, how the fuck is it possible to not know who is who when you're fucking related?

It's a problem of moral hazard.

Peace officers and officers of the court used to be personally accountable for their actions. These days, so called "public servants" no longer fall under the same legal 'regime' as an ordinary citizen. When they screw up and send the wrong individual to jail, there's no consequences for them.

Why do you care? Its not like he was black.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh why do you?

I think people mistake the polices job as "search for the truth" when it's closer to "gather evidence to get a conviction". Not that they're out to ignore leads, but you know, shit happens.

It's a courts duty to get the truth if it can, AFTER all of the evidence.. So you end up with a garbage in, garbage out situation.

Very sad for the wrongfully convicted who REALLY did nothing and who put trust that the system would figure that out..

they did figure it out a little too late. :helpme

I think even when they figure it out, you will NEVER find a DA who will admit it. How many cases have been on network TV alone and the DA is the only human on earth who still believes they did a kick ass job? lol Must be hundreds.

well, this kinda shit cant happen in the civilized world ... civilized nations have NO DEATH PENALTY :2 cents: iran, iraq, china, USA = :321GFY