It’s said that pretty much everyone has a doppelganger out there — someone who looks, talks, and acts pretty much exactly like us, so much so that it’s uncanny. Most of us will never meet ours, which is fair enough. However, what if you ended up spending time behind bars for something your lookalike did? Richard Jones was locked up for 17 years, but he wasn’t guilty — his doppelganger Ricky Amos was.
Jones went to prison in 2000 for aggravated robbery. The charges stemmed from a 1999 incident at a Walmart parking lot in Roeland Park, Kansas. A man, believed to be Jones, tried to steal a woman’s handbag. And while Jones had a solid alibi and prosecutors had no evidence to link him to the crime, he was ultimately wrongfully convicted, ABC News reports.
Richard Jones spent nearly two decades behind bars before a victim and witnesses saw a picture of Ricky Amos and suddenly realized they’d made a big mistake. This despite the fact that Jones had attempted to appeal his case multiple times and was denied.
Eventually, Richard Jones was able to clear his name
It took teaming up with The Midwest Innocence Project and the University of Kansas School of Law to get Jones’ name cleared. That’s when they discovered Amos, who looked exactly like Jones and just so happened to be behind bars at the very same prison. When a judge showed witnesses and the victim the mugshots of both men, they couldn’t actually tell the two apart.
The hard work eventually paid off and after 17 long years, Jones was released from prison. Amos didn’t get any time added to his sentence since the statute of limitations has passed.
Jones is happy to be back with his children and outside in the real world again. He was even awarded $1 million for his wrongful conviction, though no amount of money can make up for the years of his life he lost.
