Submitted By: TMN on 2007-12-13
About the video: http://texasmoratorium.org http://stopexecutions.blogspot.com

Carlos De Luna was executed in Texas in 1989 for stabbing a convenience store clerk to death in 1983. The Chicago Tribune and ABC's Nightline investigated the case and concluded that De Luna was innocent. DeLuna, a young Hispanic man, was convicted on the basis of a quick on-the-scene witness identification, claimed that the killer was a man named Carlos Hernandez.

The prosecution argued that Hernandez was a "phantom." The Tribune found that Hernandez (who died in prison in 1999) was not only no phantom, but also no stranger to law enforcement. In fact, one of DeLuna's prosecutors knew Hernandez well from an earlier homicide investigation. Hernandez and DeLuna were strikingly similar in appearance but, unlike DeLuna, Hernandez had a long history of knife attacks similar to the convenience store killing and repeatedly told friends and relatives that he had committed the murder for which DeLuna was executed.