Carlos Deluna was executed in Texas but he was innocent.
Carlos Deluna was executed in Texas but he was innocent. / ©© CC BY-SA 2.0 / Mark

Executed by lethal injection on December 7, in 1989 in Texas for murder, Carlos DeLuna was actually innocent according to an investigation conducted over five years by James Liebman and five students. Someone else was the real killer. But they were as alike two peas in a pod

It all started forty years ago, when Wanda Lopez, a young single mother, was stabbed to death in February 1989 while she was working in a gas station. She had called the police twice earlier to inform them of a suspicious individual in the area. Forty minutes later, they arrested Carlos DeLuna. The arrest was based on the description of just one witness. Unfortunately for him, he was near the gas station, he had the same first name, the almost same clothes and he matched the description. And from the moment he was arrested until his execution, he had always claimed he was innocent.

But the real killer was in fact Carlos Hernandez. He was known for his many knife attacks. James’Liebman investigation concluded that several mistakes had been made in this case. But also that the United States judiciary system was flawed. And that Carlos DeLuna was killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.