Mexican Prisoner, Tortured into Confession, Freed after 23 Years

Mexico's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of a prisoner who had spent 23 years in jail for a double murder after it concluded he had confessed under torture.

Alfonso Martin del Campo Dodd was in his 20s when in 1992 he was sentenced to 50 years in jail over the death of his sister and brother-in-law.

The Supreme Court said there had been no evidence against him except the confession it said had been obtained under torture by police.

In throwing out the conviction it acted on a decade-old recommendation from the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a panel that blamed the Mexican state for arbitrary arrest, torture and cruel treatment in this case.

One of the reports issued by the commission said that 10 to 12 police had ganged up on del Campo Dodd, placing a plastic bag over his head to suffocate him.

He was also beaten severely in the stomach and head, and kicked in the testicles until he signed a confession for the crime.