In 1979, a Texas man named Cornelius Dupree Jr. was charged with rape and robbery with a deadly weapon. In 1980, he was convicted and sentenced to 75 years in prison - a lifetime sentence for the then 20-year-old. And today, 30 years later, he was declared innocent.
A few months ago, the Innocence Project ran DNA tests on 30-year-old evidence taken from the victim. And guess what? The test results cleared Dupree of the crime. Now, a hearing is being held to confirm that the biological material does indeed match the victim's DNA, which would officially exonerate Dupree.
But Dupree isn't the first Texan to be convicted of a crime that he didn't commit. Actually, far from it. Although 51-year-old Dupree did spend more time in prison than any other DNA exoneree in Texas,
At first glance, it seems as though Texas has wrongly convicted so many citizens because of what Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins calls "a convict-at-all-costs mentality." Shouldn't Texas, and any state for that matter, be more careful when convicting people of crimes - especially when the sentence is practically for life? Or can convicting people without sufficient evidence be justified as a protection of the people, some kind of precaution?
But there's a second idea presented in this article. Maybe Dallas has exonerated so many people because of its unparalleled crime lab. Shouldn't all counties take these steps to ensure that those wrongly convicted are eventually exonerated - even if it is 30 years later? But hey - at least now Dupree can live the rest of his years outside of a cell.
2 comments:
I am happy for Dupree and I am also shocked at the number of wrongly accused victims. However, just because Texas has an "unparalleled lab" doesn't mean that that's still an excuse for why Texas has the most wrongly accused people (people in regards to this matter of DNA testing anyway). In fact, I am confused and even question their legitimacy, because I would suspect that it would not take 30 years to get a correct sample. It is my impression that Forensic scientists often play a significant role in determining a suspect's future (and in fact, this is usually the deciding role!), and I am pretty sure that the testing is almost always correct and that they re-check everything. It also does not take 30 years to test for a DNA match. But this is a scary trend...I remember seeing a brief story similar to this one on T.V. once. Is it good that Dupree is free? Yes. Is the Texas justice system somehow screwed up? I am unsure...but the time it has taken to free many innocent men is frankly frustrating and appalling.
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