37-year-old Daniel Villegas, who had been jail for 20 years, has been released from the El Paso County Jail after posting a $50,000 bond, as reported by by El Paso Times.
"I never thought this day would come. Thank God," said Villegas. Villegas had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995 for the shooting deaths of teenagers Armando "Mando" Lazo and Robert England.
"He was 16 at the time of the killings and initially confessed to them, but since then he has claimed his confession was coerced by then-El Paso police Detective Al Marquez, who allegedly threatened Villegas," El Paso Times also reported.
Villegas was released on a $50,000 bond, and a district attorney still must decide whether to pursue a new trial, The Huffington Post reported.
"This was a double murder that was completely lacking in any evidence. Four other minors confessed to the same crime. No murder weapon was ever found. No vehicle was ever identified. There was no description of a perpetrator from eyewitnesses. No forensic evidence was ever found that linked any possible perpetrator to the crime. Witness statements did not match. Physical evidence was nonexistent. The only proof was this particular confession from a boy who claimed he was coerced," according to QuestforJustice.net, a web site that was set up in support of Villegas.
The site also "details some of the problems in the stat hat looked at 328 wrongful convictions in the U.S. and found that forty-four percent of juveniles provided a false confession, compared to 13 percent of adults," as reported by The Huffington Post.
