Texas releases innocent man after 30 years in jail

AFTER spending more than 30 years in a Texas prison for a crime he did not commit, Cornelius Dupree Jr became a free man when his conviction was overturned.

Dupree, sentenced to 75 years for kidnapping, rape and robbery, had his conviction reversed in a Dallas courtroom on Tuesday when Judge Don Adams declared him “free to go”.

Dupree, 51, who had been released from jail on parole last year, is one of 265 people in the US exonerated in recent years through the development of DNA tests of evidence.

The high-profile exonerations have undermined faith in the justice system, particularly witness identifications, and have led to increased calls for legal reforms and the elimination of the death penalty.

“It’s a joy to be free again,” Dupree said, following the hearing attended by his supporters.

“Words really won’t make up for what I have lost. I lost both of my parents. I just feel that the system needs to be fixed.”

Dupree was one of two men wrongly convicted of a 1979 abduction, robbery and rape. The rape victim misidentified Dupree and Anthony Massingill in a photo lineup as the men who raped her after she and a male friend were carjacked and robbed. The male victim could not identify either man in the lineup, but at the trial both victims identified Dupree as one of the assailants.