A US man who was jailed for 17 years for a crime he didn't commit is suing the police after they finally realised he had a criminal doppelgänger.
Richard Anthony Jones wants US$1.1 million (NZ$1.66 million) in compensation for the case of mistaken identity - about US$65,000 (NZ$98,000) for every year he erroneously spent behind bars.
Mr Jones wasn't around as his children grew up, and also missed the birth of his grandchildren because of the mishap.
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The incredible case occurred because he shared both a remarkably similar face and hairstyle to his lookalike, and also had the same first name, the Kansas City Star reports.
Mr Jones was jailed in 1999 for aggravated robbery. His fingerprints and DNA were not found at the scene of the crime, but his face was picked out of a police database by a witness.
While in prison, Mr Jones was repeatedly told by other inmates he looked just like another inmate. After years of insisting he was innocent, his case reached the Midwest Innocence Project.
They found not only did he look remarkably like the other prisoner, his doppelganger had been living not far from where the robbery took place.
Witnesses to the crime, including the victim, were shown photographs of the two men and all said they could not be sure which of them did it.
He was freed from prison in 2017.
Newshub.
