he was taken from me. to hate daniel villegas. the kid convicted of killing his friends. and then he read the confession and realized it could have been him in prison instead of daniel. >> i kept thinking of daniel, like, how could they do this to him? and he was like me. he just wanted out. he just wanted to go home. and i'm pretty sure he just did sign, did whatever they wanted. >> a reporter: thinking he could go home? >> exactly. i had to do something. >> reporter: and so he called john mimbela. >> i said, "john it's gonna be hard for me, but i'll do what i can." >> reporter: aouery big deal, id john mimbela. even though, frankly, the oject seemed stalled then. the writ of habeas corpus asking for a new trial was submitted, it would be reviewed by a judg r and the da. but that could take years. so mimbela decided he needed more legal muscle. something super-credible. so in 2010 he looked north to chicago, 1500 miles and a culture-shift from el paso. home of the northwestern university school of law center on wrongful convictions of youth. remember, several other innoce