A man who spent 20 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit was exonerated on Monday — but he’ll have to wait another three years to walk free, according to NBC News.
Forty-one-year-old Angel Gonzalez was convicted of abducting and raping a 35-year-old woman in 1994 and sentenced to 40 years in prison. But when recent DNA tests found the presence of bodily fluids belonging to two other men — and failed to link Gonzalez to the crimes — Illinois state prosecutors said they had no choice but to exonerate Gonzalez.
The men whose DNA was found on crime-scene evidence have not yet been identified.
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After attending Monday’s hearing, Gonzalez returned to prison where he will complete a separate, three-year sentence for a property damage conviction stemming from his destruction of a sink while being held in solitary confinement. Additional reporting by NBCNews’ Suzanne Gamboa
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