A Mexican man has been exonerated of rape charges in light of new DNA evidence – after spending two decades in prison.

Angel Gonzalez, now 41, had been sentenced to 40 years behind bars for aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping in the 1994 rape of a woman in Illinois.

“His conviction was the result of a rush to judgment,” attorney Vanessa Potkin of the Innocence Project said in an interview with Yahoo News. “Any evidence of innocence was completely discounted. It was complete tunnel vision.”

Contemporary forensic testing technology, which was not available at the time, shows that the DNA profiles of two unknown males were found in the victim’s shorts and personal items — neither matched Gonzalez’s, according to the office of Lake County State Attorney Michael G. Nerheim.

"It is my duty to ensure that the rights of all citizens are upheld, regardless of whether that person is a victim or an accused," Nerheim said in a statement.

Potkin, who was Gonzalez’s lead counsel, said he has not yet been released because he was sentenced to an additional three years after breaking a sink while in solitary confinement early in his prison sentence.

“If this damage had been done while somebody was not incarcerated it would be inconceivable that there would be a three-year sentence. At this point, it would be an absurdity of our system,” she said.

The whole reason Gonzalez was in prison in the first place was a rape that occurred on July 10, 1994, between 9:15 and 10 p.m. CT.

Two men kidnapped an unidentified woman from her apartment complex and sexually assaulted her in a nearby backyard.

She told police that the perpetrators drove a “late model, dark colored, four-door sedan with tinted windows.”

Officers jotted down the license plate number on Gonzalez’s dark Cadillac sedan as it left the apartment complex that night.

Shortly after 1 a.m., Gonzalez was pulled over, handcuffed, and walked to the front of a squad car. The victim, from the backseat of another squad car, identified him as the rapist in the dark of night, the Innocence Project said.

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“He was put in a suggestive lineup procedure. He was in handcuffs with an officer next to him, being illuminated by the lights of a patrol car,” Potkin said. “Once that identification was made, no new information would convince the police otherwise.”

Gonzalez, who was 20 and spoke little English at the time, said he and his girlfriend had been visiting his sister, who also lived in the apartment complex, but police did not bother to investigate his alibi, Potkin said.

Later, at trial, four witnesses confirmed that he was at his sister’s apartment, but he was still convicted.

Potkin argues that police used coercive techniques to coax a “confession” out of an innocent man. He was told to write a statement about the crime in Spanish after sitting in an interrogation room in a paper jumpsuit for nine hours, according to the Innocence Project.

After the confession did not match the facts about the crime, officers wrote an English-language confession, which he could not read, for him to sign, the nonprofit said.

Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck praised State’s Attorney Mike Nerheim for demonstrating a commitment to justice in Lake County.

“His office readily consented to the DNA testing and moved quickly to reverse the conviction as soon as the testing proved Mr. Gonzalez’ innocence,” Scheck said in a news release. “This is a much welcome change from his predecessor, who stubbornly fought for years to deny justice for several wrongly convicted people in Lake County.”

Potkin says that Nerheim’s office has recommitted to investigating the rape case and tracking down the actual rapists.

Michael Waller, the previous prosecutor, retired from the office amid controversy in 2012. The Chicago Tribune reports that he disregarded forensic evidence that would exonerate several inmates and actively sought to keep them behind bars.

The Innocence Project challenged the charge and Gonzalez was expected to be released from Dixon Correctional Facility on Tuesday evening.