Carlos DeLuna Execution: Wrong Man Sentenced To Death In Texas

Carlos DeLuna Wrongfully Executed, Probe Says

Carlos DeLuna was executed by lethal injection in Texas in 1989 for stabbing to death a single mother six years earlier. However, a Columbia law school investigation has recently found out that DeLuna was the wrong man.

In a book-length monograph published Tuesday on "Columbia Human Rights Law Review," Columbia University law professor James Liebman and a team of students said the likely suspect was DeLuna's tocayo - or namesake - Carlos Hernandez.

"The Article chronicles the murder of Wanda Lopez in Corpus Christi, Texas on February 4, 1983 and then traces the intersecting lives of Carlos DeLuna, who was ultimately convicted of murder and executed on December 8, 1989, and Carlos Hernandez, the likely culprit." the authors wrote. "In painstaking detail, the authors have identified the numerous missteps, missed clues, and missed opportunities that led authorities to 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 authors added that their investigation reveals "how easily our legal system can fail to produce just outcomes even without the deliberate interference of individuals acting in bad faith and how the consequences of such failures can be irrevocable and, at times, fatal."

Titled "Los Tocayos Carlos," the narrative report of the investigation can be found here: http://www3.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/ltc/chapter/foreword/1.html