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Identical twin testifies he committed murder and brother was wrongly convicted

A prosecutor in Chicago on Thursday questioned the claim of an identical twin who testified he committed a murder and his brother was wrongly convicted of the crime in 2005.

Karl Smith first made the claim in a letter he sent to his brother in the fall of 2013, the Chicago Tribune reports. In Cook County, Illinois, court on Thursday, Smith said he and his brother were both gang members who sold drugs, but he was the man who fired a gun into a group of people, killing one man and wounding another.

The shooting victim who survived had identified Smith’s twin, Kevin Dugar, in a photo lineup that did not include Smith. (Smith has a different last name than his brother because he uses his mother’s maiden name.)

Assistant State’s Attorney Carol Rogala said in court that Smith has nothing to lose by taking the rap. He is serving a 99-year sentence for attempted murder in a different case, and he came forward only after an appeals court upheld the conviction.

According to the Tribune, the brothers had impersonated one another for years and they still looked identical in the court appearance Thursday.