Innocent until the End

James Lieban Professor of Law at Columbia

In 1983 Texas prosecutors sent a supposed killer to prison and then sentenced him to death.  But 29 years later Columbia School of Law students and their professor have discovered that the Lone Star State sentenced the wrong man. 

Innocent until the end Carlos DeLuna was mistaken for the actual murderer, even the families had a difficult time identifying the two. 

According to news sources the report completed by Columbia School of Law, "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. 

The article goes on to say that, "the night Lopez called police for help twice to protect her from an individual with a switchblade.  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." 

A case of mistaken identity that ended in the tragic loss of an innocent life.  James Liebman, professor of law at Columbia, stated that this was "a case that he says is "emblematic" of legal system failure."  Lieban and his team of students spent 5 years pouring through the case of the clearly unfinished investigation.  To read more please go to the following link:

http://news.yahoo.com/wrong-man-executed-texas-probe-says-051125159.html