JTF.ORG Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: TheViper on January 04, 2011, 11:51:30 AM
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DALLAS – A Texas man had his conviction overturned Tuesday for a rape and robbery he didn't commit after serving 30 years in prison, more time than any other inmate subsequently exonerated by DNA evidence in his state.
Cornelius Dupree Jr., 51, was formally cleared of the aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon conviction that had kept him behind bars from December 1979 until July of 2010. He served 30 years of his 75-year sentence before making parole in July. About a week later, DNA test results came back proving his innocence.
"It's a joy to be free again," Dupree said after the ruling in a Dallas courtroom.
Dupree is the longest-serving inmate cleared by DNA evidence in Texas, which has freed 41 wrongly convicted inmates through DNA since 2001 — more than any other state.
Nationally, only two others who have been exonerated by DNA evidence spent more time in prison, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center representing Dupree that specializes in wrongful conviction cases. James Bain was wrongly imprisoned for 35 years in Florida, and Lawrence McKinney spent more than 31 years in a Tennessee prison.
The DNA testing in Dupree's case also excluded a second defendant, Anthony Massingill, who was subsequently convicted in another sexual assault case and sentenced to life in prison. Massingill remains in prison but maintains his innocence. DNA testing in that second case is ongoing.
Sitting on the courtroom benches were at least six other Texas men wrongly imprisoned but later cleared by either DNA testing or other means. The men have made a habit of showing up together every time a new man is declared innocent.
Dupree was charged in 1979 with raping and robbing a 26-year-old woman. He was sentenced a year later to 75 years in prison for aggravated robbery. He was never tried on the rape charge.
According to court documents, the woman and her male companion stopped at a Dallas liquor store in November 1979 to buy cigarettes and use a payphone. As they returned to their car, two men, at least one of whom was armed, forced their way into the vehicle and ordered them to drive. They also demanded money from the two victims.
The men eventually ordered the car to the side of the road and forced the male driver out of the car. The woman attempted to flee but was pulled back inside.
The perpetrators drove the woman to a nearby park, where they raped her at gunpoint. They debated killing her but eventually let her live, keeping her rabbit-fur coat and her driver's license and warning her they would kill her if she reported the assault to police. The victim ran to the nearest highway and collapsed unconscious by the side of the road, where she was discovered.
Dupree and Massingill were arrested in December because they looked similar to two suspects being sought in another sexual assault and robbery. The 26-year-old woman picked both men out of a photo array, but her male companion did not identify either defendant in the same photo array.
Dupree was convicted and spent the next three decades appealing. The Court of Criminal Appeals turned him down three times.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110104/ap_on_re_us/us_dna_exoneration_texas
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I can see how that could have happened with the photo array. He was probably the one who looked closest to her attacker with the photos spread out in front of her, but she probably couldn't remember exactly what the guys looked like.
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From what I have read, DuPree had a record before being arrested. To me, this is giving this ape a free pass to commit more crimes. Even if he was innocent of this rape/robbery, Texas would be safer if this biped remained behind bars. Just watch..he will pull something and then whine that "Whitey be targetin' me! Mhmm! Mhmmm!"
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This is what you get with a retarded jury system with retarded people in it.
After all it's the jury system which acquitted OJ Simpson.
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Good for him! -- I gotta wonder if he waxes his head! :::D
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From what I have read, DuPree had a record before being arrested. To me, this is giving this ape a free pass to commit more crimes. Even if he was innocent of this rape/robbery, Texas would be safer if this biped remained behind bars. Just watch..he will pull something and then whine that "Whitey be targetin' me! Mhmm! Mhmmm!"
Someone on the nmania board has something in their signature along the lines of "all negros are guilty, some are convicted for the wrong crime". lol
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Even if innocent of this crime, it is likely he has done other bad things.
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Even if innocent of this crime, it is likely he has done other bad things.
If he is guilty, he will probably do something stupid within the next year to end up in prison again. Hopefully noone will get hurt in the process.
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I wonder how much money he will get.
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I wonder how much money he will get.
Giving a lot of money to the typical negro would not help them but be a terrible curse for them.
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Is it possible that the DNA has deteriorated enough over 30 years to produce a false-negative result here?