DNA Test Shows Texas Man Who Served 30 Years in Rape and Robbery Case Was Innocent
Paroled in July after serving 30 years in an abduction, robbery and rape case, a Texas man has now been declared innocent after being cleared through DNA testing.
Exonerated today in a Dallas courtroom, Cornelius Dupree Jr., 51, said it is a joy to be free but added later that “words won’t make up for what I lost,” reports the Dallas Morning News.
He holds the record for serving the most time among 41 convicts found innocent through DNA testing in Texas since 2001, reports the Associated Press. Of those 41 wrongfully convicted individuals, 21 were in Dallas County. The current district attorney there, Craig Watkins, has been actively reinvestigating questioned cases and supported Dupree’s claim of innocence.
His alleged accomplice in the case, Anthony Ray Massingill, 49, was also exonerated. However, he remains in prison while DNA testing is done concerning a second rape for which he is serving a life sentence.
Both Dupree and Massingill, like almost all of the other exonerated inmates, were convicted based on eyewitness testimony.
A CNN interview with Dupree provides additional details.
Related coverage:
ABA Journal: “After Years, Even Decades, the Exonerated Leave Prison Walls Behind—Only to Find New Barriers”
ABA Journal: “Harmless Error? New Study Claims Prosecutorial Misconduct Is Rampant in California”
ABAJournal.com: “26-Year Inmate Freed After Lawyers Reveal Real Killer”
ABAJournal.com: “Free at Last After 25 Years, Former Inmate Marvels at Life”
