Texan declared innocent after 30 years in prison

Last update 2019 04 28, to add links to related articles.

Texan declared innocent after 30 years in prison. The Innocence Project helped to exonerate him and other convicted but innocent prisoners, some of them after they had been sentenced to death.  Is it reasonable that all or virtually all of them were men?

statesman.com; Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011

By JEFF CARLTON

The Associated Press

DALLAS — A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison had at least two chances to make parole and be set free — if only he would admit he was a sex offender. But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, in the process serving more time for a crime he didn’t commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.

“Whatever your truth is, you have to stick with it,” Dupree, 51, said Tuesday, minutes after a Dallas judge overturned his conviction….(Full Story)

The The Innocence Network was involved in a good number of exonerations of convicted individuals (as of 2013):

»There have been 311 post-conviction DNA exonerations in United States history. These stories are becoming more familiar as more innocent people gain their freedom through postconviction testing. They are not proof, however, that our system is righting itself….

• The Innocence Project was involved in 171 of the 311 DNA exonerations. Others were helped by Innocence Network organizations, private attorneys and by pro se defendants in a few instances….« More

The Innocence Project identifies other issues, for example,

After Exoneration

DNA testing has freed scores of innocent inmates around the country. But where does a wrongly convicted person go when released from prison without a safety net?

Many exonerees are released from their cells without fanfare, apologies or anywhere to go. In some states, more services are available to parolees than to exonerees. During long years in prison, families and friends have disappeared. Any money in the bank before conviction has probably been spent on legal fees. Most exonerees struggle immediately to find housing and work and many bear the weight of a conviction on their record for years before they are officially cleared.

The stories of seven wrongly convicted men and their adjustment to freedom are told in the recently released documentary, After Innocence. Click here to learn more about the movie and to watch a trailer…. More

The Innocence Network has a Facebook page.

A related issue:

Men vs. Women Incarceration Ratios

#TheInnocenceNetwork

See also:

• Justice for Judges — Kids for Cash Bribery Case
• Re: Duke Lacrosse Players • You won’t find this on the front pages of the major dailies
• DNA tests exonerate Ohio man wrongly convicted of rape
• Wrongful rape convictions