When Justice Gets It Wrong: How a Doppelgänger Cost Richard Jones, 19 Years In prison.

 

Photo: Credited to Quora.com'

Do you believe in luck (good or bad)? Richard Jones's sad story explains what bad luck is.

Richard was just a regular guy—a steady job, a loving wife, and kids at home. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then one day, his whole life flipped upside down. He was suddenly arrested and convicted of an armed robbery he swore he didn’t commit. Despite his pleas, the evidence seemed stacked against him—witnesses and even security footage all pointed fingers at him. The court sentenced him to 20 years behind bars.

Fast forward a few years, Richard gets transferred to a new prison.That’s where things take a wild turn. He met another inmate named... Richard. Richard Amos, to be exact. But here's the kicker—they look exactly alike. We're talking twin-level resemblance. So much so that even the guards and fellow inmates were mixing them up.

It turns out that the guy who actually committed the robbery wasn’t Richard Jones at all—it was his lookalike, Richard Amos.

After 19 long years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit, Richard Jones was finally freed. Now he’s asking the state for $1.2 million as compensation. And honestly? After losing nearly two decades of his life, that seems like the very least they can do.