By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-943540.mp3
Dallas, TX – After spending 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Cornelius Dupree was exonerated in a Dallas courtroom Tuesday morning. KERA's BJ Austin reports.
With few words, lawyers submitted legal documents to Dallas County Criminal Court Judge Don Adams, who accepted them and told 51 year old Cornelius Dupree Jr., "You are free to go."
Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, shared Dupree's moment of freedom in the courtroom.
Scheck: Cornelius Dupree served 30 years in jail, in prison, which is the largest number of years anyone has ever served in the state of TX for a crime in did not commit. This is just extraordinary when you think about it.
Dupree smiled broadly, and told the court, it's a joy to be free again."
Dupree: I'm kinda feeling mixed emotions. I just want to say that I feel that words really won't make up for what I done lost. I just feel that the system needs to be fixed, by whatever means, so this won't happen to anyone else.
Dupree's Innocence Project lawyer Nina Morrison says mistaken eyewitness identification put an innocent 19 year old man in prison for 30 years.
Morrison: He and his co defendant Mr. Massingill were walking to a party one evening when they were stopped by some officers who thought they looked similar to suspects in a rape, were taken into custody, put in a photo lineup, and on the basis of that tragic mistaken identification, he is here 31 years later, 51 years old just beginning his life as a free man.
Anthony Massingill remains in prison on a second rape conviction - now being studied by the Innocence Project.
Scheck: Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of the conviction of the innocent in the United States, if not the planet.
Again, Barry Scheck.
Scheck: Now it's an issue of getting every, every police department in the state of Texas to adopt these simple reforms that don't cost more money, but they save lives. They save families and it will do justice.
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins says his priority for the Texas Legislature, which convenes next week, is improved, "required" eyewitness identification standards for all police departments in the state.