1989 Texas execution kills the wrong man

A report conducted by the Columbia School of Law says the man, Carlos deLuna, was the spitting image of the killer, had the same first name and was near the scene of the crime at the fateful hour.

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 analyzing the 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 traces the facts surrounding the February 1983 murder of Wanda Lopez, a single mother who was stabbed in the gas station of Corpus Christi.

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

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

Hernandez, known for using a blade in his attacks, was later jailed for murdering a woman with the same knife.