Richard Anthony Jones spent 17 years in prison after being convicted for an aggravated robbery which he denied committing.
Despite the fact that the prosecution charged Jones based on eyewitness accounts alone, with no fingerprints or DNA evidence linking the man to the crime, he was found guilty and each of his several appeals were subsequently denied.
During his time in prison, Jones learned from his fellow inmates about a man named Ricky who apparently was his exact lookalike. In 2015 he relayed his findings to the Midwest Innocence Project and the group eventually managed to track down Ricky who, as it turns out, lived fairly close to the scene of the crime.
"When I saw the picture of my double it all made sense to me," Jones said.
After being shown the pictures of the two men, the witnesses and the victim of the crime testified that they no longer could say with certainty that Jones was the perpetrator, and the judge ordered his release.
It should be noted, however, that Ricky also denied committing the crime.
