A Chicago man has been released from prison after his twin brother sent him a letter confessing to the crime.
Kevin Dugar spent almost two decades in prison for a gang-related murder in 2003.
His twin brother Karl Smith confessed to the crime 10 years later.
"I have to get it off my chest before it kills me," Smith wrote in a 2013 letter to his imprisoned brother, Fox 32 Chicago reported. "So I'll just come clean and pray you can forgive me."
Prosecutors argued that Smith only came clean because he had been convicted for his involvement in a home invasion and armed robbery that left a six-year-old boy dead in 2008, which landed him a 99-year prison sentence.
According to Fox 32 Chicago, a judge denied a retrial for Dugar in 2018 over the credibility of the confession, but that was later reversed by the Court of Appeal.
Dugar's lawyer, Ronald Safer, argued a jury would determine a different outcome given the new evidence in the case.
"The judge granted his release pending trial on a signature bond and he walked out into the open air and breathed his first breaths as a free man in almost 20 years," NBC News reported Safer said.
"It was gratifying to watch his tears roll down his cheeks and their cheeks."
Dugar, as part of his release, must live in a residential transitional facility for 90 days.
The unique circumstance of the case is circulating on social media.
"Whole new level of finishing each other's sentences," one Reddit user said.
"The brother confessed in 2013. NEARLY A DECADE AGO. And Kevin is getting out now," a Twitter user said.
"So the brother who 'really did it' only confessed after he was convicted of a separate crime and sentenced to essentially life in prison? Maybe he really did it and was telling the truth, but falsely confessing would be a good way to help your brother out since you were already screwed," another Reddit user said.
"I'll do 10 then you do 10. Deal? Promise," another wrote.