Executed but innocent

Carlos Deluna on the left, and Carlos Hernandez on the right.

In 1989, the state of Texas executed Carlos DeLuna, a 27-year-old Latino man, for the 1983 stabbing death of gas station clerk Wanda Lopez in Corpus Christi. From the moment of his arrest to his final breath, DeLuna maintained his innocence. He claimed the real killer was another man, Carlos Hernandez, a violent offender with a known history of knife attacks.

At the time, prosecutors dismissed Hernandez as a “phantom,” a figment of DeLuna’s imagination. But years later, a Chicago Tribune investigation and a comprehensive study by Columbia Law School revealed that Hernandez was real. Because he had also confessed multiple times to the murder for which DeLuna was executed.

DeLuna’s conviction rested on:

• A single, cross-ethnic eyewitness identification made at night under chaotic conditions

• No forensic evidence linking him to the crime

• A sloppy police investigation that ignored conflicting witness descriptions

• A defense team that failed to investigate Hernandez or present mitigating evidence

• A prosecution that withheld key information and dismissed Hernandez as imaginary

Despite the bloody nature of the crime, no blood was found on DeLuna’s clothes, and he had no history of violent crime. Yet he was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death within six years.

Carlos Hernandez was not only real, but he was also well known to local law enforcement. He had a long criminal record involving knives and assaults on women. After DeLuna’s execution, multiple people came forward stating that Hernandez had bragged about committing the murder, saying his “tocayo” (namesake) had taken the fall.

In fact, Hernandez was later convicted of attempted murder with a knife in a separate case and died in prison in 1999.

In 2012, Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Law Review published Los Tocayos Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution-a 400+ page investigation led by Professor James Liebman. The report concluded that DeLuna was almost certainly innocent, and that the justice system failed at every level.

The study revealed:

• Police chased a suspect matching Hernandez’s description the night of the murder

• Hernandez had a history of similar crimes, including another murder for which he was never tried

• Prosecutors knew of Hernandez but told the jury he didn’t exist

• DeLuna’s defense attorney had never tried a criminal case before

This story is not just about one man. It’s about a system that failed to protect the innocent, failed to pursue the truth, and failed to honor the life of the victim by finding her true killer.

Carlos DeLuna died with dignity, saying, “I hold no grudge against nobody. I hate nobody. I want my family to know I love them.”

But love alone cannot undo what was done.

As a spiritual scribe and advocate, I believe that truth is sacred, even when it arrives too late. This case is a haunting reminder that justice without truth is no justice at all. And that the death penalty, once carried out, cannot be undone.

• The Wrong Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution – Columbia Law School

• Carlos DeLuna - Wikipedia

• Carlos Hernández (criminal) - Wikipedia

• Newsweek: Carlos DeLuna Documentary Details Evidence That Texas Executed 'Innocent' Man

• Chicago Tribune Special Report: Did This Man Die for This Man’s Crime?

• The Guardian: The Wrong Carlos - How Texas Sent an Innocent Man to His Death

• Equal Justice Initiative: Texas Executed an Innocent Man, Study Finds