Cornelius Dupree Jr. Served 30 Years in a Texas Prison For a Crime He Didn't Commit

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Jan. 3 2011 at 11:49 AM

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The Innocence Project

Cornelius Dupree Jr. and his wife, Selma Perkins Dupree

Three times since his 1979 rape conviction Cornelius Dupree Jr. has tried to get the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to re-hear his case, and three times he was denied. His most recent appeal came in September 2005 -- a pro se plea for help in which, once again, he maintained his innocence. In June 2006 the court denied his request for habeas corpus relief.

Dupree, who is now 51, was convicted by a Dallas County jury 31 years ago for sexual assault: Prosecutors said he and another man kidnapped a couple, threw the man out of the car, then raped the female passenger. Dupree always maintained his innocence. He was sentenced to serve 75 years, but was released on parole last July for good behavior. Ten days later, says Paul Cates, director of communications for The Innocence Project, tests came back revealing that Dallas County had put the wrong man in prison. Which is how Cornelius Dupree Jr. came to be the state's longest-serving innocent man.

Cates tells Unfair Park this morning that The Innocence Project first began examining Dupree's claims of innocence in 2006.

"It was several years earlier when he sent us the application, but we have a big backlog, so it takes us a while to sort through the material to see whose case can be helped by DNA testing and whose can't," Cates says. "And the DA's office was cooperative. It just took four years to find out if physical evidence existed, then test it, then test everyone else's again and go through all the procedures. It takes an inordinate amount of time."

Cates says that 10 days after Dupree was released in July, they discovered he was innocent. "But we had to do more testing after that to satisfy the district attorney," Cate says. Those tests came back a few weeks ago -- revealing, yet again, that Dupree was innocent. A hearing is scheduled in a Dallas courtroom tomorrow, at which time Dupree will officially be told: He is innocent.

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very happy for you mr Dupree I knew it would happen I just hate it took so long ms DF. keep smiling
MR DUPREE god bless you and your freedom that you deserve and now for the lame ass people does al sharpton ring a bell? and did 8 girls lie on carlos coy ummm no there is injustices but also there are times when due process is served again may god bless you mr dupree
As a rape victim, I sat with a hand over my mouth and his body on my chest as he put on a condom in my face. You are so scared, frozen in time, not believing this is happening. No DNA left behind. I guess my rapist should have gone free?
Igonorant rants don't bring light to the fact that there are innocent men all over the country serving time, Dallas County keeps their DNA evidence indefinitely. I guess those ten gallon hats did something right. How many innocent black men in Chicago, New York, LA, San Francisco, Atlanta. We will never know. This is not just a Texas thing. By the way we have the six strongest economy in the world, not bad for a bunch of cowboys.
Yes if you are black and broke the only justice that fits you is jail time. I like how some white ppl wanna down play the fact. One thing that always amazed me is how noone is ever at fault. You have the police who investigate, the DA who prosecuted the man basicaly on chumped up charges ""BEYOND SHODOW OF A DOUBT"" ( my foot) and got him convicted. 3 appeals all denied. After 30 yrs those same ppl move up to better position yet none of them will be help accountable for this gross miscarry of justice. I guess perjury law knows boundaries.
It has nothing to do with color of skin, it all is determined by how much green you got to spend and I hope he gets millions for his 31 years of being jailed and innocent but even millions can not buy back the time he served
Texas justice. Didn't take 'em long to send him away and forget about him. Then when the DA is told he's innocent, they say "Better check that again." Unbelieveable.
So should those of us who vote Democratic have to pay, too? I'm going to do you a favor and tell you exactly where to channel your righteous rage: now-deceased former District Attorney Henry Wade. It was under his decades-long tenure that nearly all of these false convictions occurred. He fostered a convict-at-all-costs culture among prosecutors. The man was a shit-heel. A pox upon his house! Oh, and nobody wears 10-gallon hats. Think Atlanta with Mexicans or Denver without mountains. Still no great shakes, of course.
After the cover-up that Perry performed in the execution of the guy who supposedly set fire to his own house, I wouldn't bother with any correspondence to Perry's office. They'll just laugh and toss into the trash, as they do anything not far-right Christian.
30 years. Some people can't even hang long enough to work at a normal job for that long. I truly hope that Texas gives this guy a humungous retirement plan.
I wonder if he will still have to register as a sex offender?
Misidentification is all too common, eye witness accounts are often wrong especially in a traumatic situation. Your smart comment is over shadowed by the DNA evidence that freed this innocent man. All it takes is for the Justice system to zero in on you and it's all over for an innocent person and if you asr poor or a minority it's even worse. In my thirty something years on this earth I have been asked twice to take part in a line up by law enforcement because I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I am a black man so why not ask me to take part in a line up. I have graduate degree, several years of military service and a professional career and I cannot count how many times I have been stopped by police officers in my vehicle for no apparent reason. If you think this gentleman is the only innocent person in prison you are sadly mistaken.
Cornelius: Take the money and take your bride on a nice honeymoon. Love it up! People live all their lives to save and never get this kind of money. Go Peace to you Cornelius
Gee, I wonder what compelled the victims to ID men that they had NEVER SEEN.
No, white judges do not have a corner on injustice. That is in all races, all religions. However, the state of Texas is KNOWN for the bigoted treatment of blacks and women!!! O am white and fuming mad! We should all continue inundate the Texas governor's office with so much email and snail mail!!!n I know that I am.
Well they say that everything big in texes I guess will find out about there check book (lol)
FREE The South Park Mexican aka, Carlos Coy - Go play the lotto now Dupree and crack their head wide open to the white meat!!!
This case is proof that there is a God. African American men have been convicted of crimes that they did not do for many years. This is proof that no matter how long it may take if you are innocent and you never give up, joy will come to your life again. I can not imagin at 19 years old being told that you are going to prison for the rest of your life for a crime you did not do. All I can say is to God be the Glory!
The justic system is a joke, it is called the color of Law, never will I give a person with a robe in the court system any honors. My Honors goes to Allah. But realizing we have to have some system. They are mostly liers like car salesmen. Mr and Mrs. Cornelius Depree I pray your years lost by the system, that had no right to place you behind bars, and I say that to the both of you because your entier family has been through something I can never imagine. Peace and Love, Praises to Allah for your freedom, and Thanks to the peolpe that helped you, and your wife for being strong. And to those that don't know black, AA, negro is not a nationality and it is a insult again to thoses that know the truth of wear they came from.
I also believe that cases which find the suspect guilty of a capital crime, that they receive a sentence of more than 25 years should have a minimum of two appeal hearings permitted to determine positive ID by testing of DNA.... Just to deny the appeal without proper cause is just plain wrong! These appeals should be held as soon as possible so that Justice is properly served. Mr Dupree was denied appeals three times, where is the justice in his case. If the courts cannot do the appeals in a timely manner, then assign more courts and judges to the cases. Nobody should have to be imprisoned for 30 years and be innocent of the crime. The courts should be held responsible for the appeal denials.....
My family moved to the Dallas area in 1978 from the Northeast. I was 11 at the time. I graduated HS in the area in '85. I witnessed, firsthand, how people of color were treated by "the establishment" and talked about on a daily basis during that time period. Reading this article brought back memories that make my stomach hurt. I hope times have changed.
The confiction of Mr Dupree relates to a movie "My Cousin Vinnie"! Just how badly was the witnesses eyesight when it comes to identifying the accused because of a similarity of looks! I have heard so many times from people all Blacks look-a-like. That is BS at it's highest level if racism. However, the thought of that phrase may have some credibility if in fact a person (no matter what color) cannot tell the difference from one black person from another. In that case the wrong person could go to prison based upon a bad Identification...
The state of Texas should be help accountable for the 30 years Mr Dupree spent in a prison which he was found guilty of. He should be provided with ammenties to the maximum allowed by the state of Texas. The state of Texas can't return the 30 years they took from him and his family but they should make his future years are much more easier by providing him with a large sum of comphensation for his unlawful detention.
Can the TX Court of Criminal Appeals be impeached? These judges, I mean bigoted clowns, look utterly incompetent, if not worse. As Hubert Humphrey once said, ""double the rate of convictions' is not in the Constitution."
What a sad thing for this poor man to endure, prayers are being sent for him and his family. What is wrong with the government anyway? Why not test the DNA when it was first discovered, he would have been free a long time ago. So sad. I think he should sue the state that put him in there. Good luck to him, and his loved ones. I hope they figured out who was the criminal and put him behind bars.
Don't forget to do some reading on the original case in which both the victims identified Dupree in court. Evidence collected 20 years before they knew what DNA was is what they are basing innocence on and the Dallas police department never mishandled evidence in the past. I just think it's odd all the cases over turned have been older cases and none that I can remember in the last ten years. I think a group has found a way to exploit poor handling of evidence by the Dallas police department.
ten bucks says the crime victims were white
Cogrdulations! I am so happy for your release
THANK GOD !!!!!!!!!!!! WHEN I READ THIS STORY IT BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES IM SO HAPPY FOR U AND YO WIFE MAY GOD KEEP U N BLESSED U ALWAYS N FOREVER...THIS WAS A SPEECHLESS MOMENT....
How about we make a law that every case where a DNA test is requested gets the test? There is no reason to deny anyone the opportunity to use science to prove their innocence. How about we make a law that says there has to be actual evidence of rape to get a conviction? There has to be more than just an accusation. If there is no confession, there should have to be DNA evidence, video evidence, and/or at least evidence that it happened at all. The way things are now a VIRGIN can get someone convicted of rape. It happens!
It has long been a falacy in America that African Americans commit crimes in larger percentages, but if the justice system would accurately present truthful evidence, if the media would accurately report crimes that ALL Americans commit, and if our judicial system was not sooo unfair in meteing out JUSTICE to African Americans, perhaps these stories woudl not be so prevalent! It is glaringly obvious that our jusicial system is flawed and prejudiced especailly toward African American men. I shudder to think of how many wrongly convicted African American men have been executed (particulrly in Texas) after being wrongly convicted!!
Texas, an embarrassment to the nation. Their brand of right wing justice belongs in a third world dictatorship. Yes the citizens of Dallas County should pay because they elect the officials that make these policies. Those sh*tkickers should support their elected officials through thick and thin if that's the way they want things, and if that means paying millions and millions in lawsuits then that's the choice they made to be a bunch of ignorant hicks in ten gallon hats. Good on this dude, don't take a paltry two million and $50k a year, sue them until they are the broke rednecks they deserve to be. And the Cowboys suck!!!
Hope he'll get a lot of money as compensation..he lost 30 years of life best years.
I admire his lovely wife who waited for him...lovely love story.
You are right. BUT it does not need to be white judge, just stupid. Compensation to these people should be paid first han from judges pocket, then from community. If judges has to pay about mistakes, they consider more.
Mrs Dupree your a wonderful woman for waiting for your innocent husband..kudos to you..my heart goes out to you both.
Can't beleve this happend, there is NO excuse to this person and no money in the world could ever make up for all those years in prison. So glad I'm not living in this "democracy" in the country that think they know the world and how ot should be run....At least now you've got Obama who know's how the real world looks, but unfortunately a bit to late. But it's never to late to change and to start with some internal investigations? /Scandinavia
So The State Of Texas owes him 30 years and that means that he's pretty much got a free ride / 30 years credit... don't piss this guy off!
Eh he is lucky he wasn't executed. It is Texas
Can he sue these people, what a travesty of justice, what of the brutality, rape, and hostility this man had to endure in prison. How many others could there be going thru this. The prosecutors shoud be locked up themselves.
Articfoxxx19 took the words right from my mouth. And mind this, I am not an African american male but a finnish auntie on the other side of the world. How can anyone aprove death sentence when these things happen? Congratulations Cornelius Dupree Jr.! I wish you all the best from now on! Auntie
Sue the mother fuckers....Dallas has a history of hate and bigotry and the State Prisons are full of the evidence.
I say give beat the judge and the wackass jury and lawyers that prosecuted him, smack the skank that gave the wrong identification/suspect, AND give him the money! The real person enjoyed the victim's stank ass and then some and probably was never caught. Wackass "Black-Only" CJ system. Then, it's in Texas; what did you expect?!
If he agrees not to sue, he'll get nearly $2.5 million in cash and roughly $50,000 per year for life (in the form of an annuity) under current state law. Nothing can truly compensate someone for thirty years behind bars, of course, but at least there is a system in place that allows for some payments without having to spend years suing the state and people involved.
Totally amazing work by the Innocence Project, who started working on this case in 2006. Bravo! Texas owes Mr Dupree a debt that can never be repaid.
We need to give this man some real serious money. This case also begs another question. We have a serious percentage of cases of wrongful conviction for rape. DNA evidence later excludes a disturbingly large percentage of these convicts. We must assume the same techniques, i.e., eye witness testimony, used in convicting people of other crimes have a similar error rate. In other words, those convicted of murder, armed robbery or assault where no DNA was recovered at the scene, are likely innocent in similar proportions. Lastly, as an Anglo, it is easy to see the great number of those wrongly convicted are Black or minority ethnic origin. If I were Black I'd find it difficult to believe a great number of these convictions are not complicated, if not motivated, by race. Perhaps this racial element is simply because AA's commit crimes in larger percentages, but it is a very, VERY suspect aspect of these convictions. Philip
There is no dollar amount that can compensate this man for 30 years of hard time.
PAY UP! Geeze that is just horrible. Entered at 21 and out at 51.......crazy. I am so sorry.
I smell a lawsuit.
Of course, he is an African American male. Any one notice a pattern about innocent men being cleared after spending decades in prison? Law's color blind, right? Only in one regard: Green. If you have the money, you can buy justice; Without it, you get none.