In 1979, Cornelius Dupree Jr. at the age of 19 was convicted of robbery and rape. He served 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Finally, after all of this time, he has been exonerated and is now a free man because of DNA evidence. The article stated that he always maintained that he “was mistakenly identified as the suspect.” The Court of Criminal Appeals ignored his pleas of innocence each and every time.
The Justice system continues to fail and convict people due to mistaken identity. The system needs to change as over the years, innocent people are serving time and losing their freedom based on other people’s mistakes. In addition, because of continued racial profiling, due to mistaken identification, more African American men are more likely to end up in prison than Caucasian men. “More than half of all Black men report that they have been the victims of racial profiling by police, according to a recently published survey.” In today’s day, this is absurd and unacceptable; no person, especially based on the color of their skin, should have to go to prison because of someone else’s mistakes to identify the right suspect. This man was in the wrong place at the wrong time and should never have lost 30 years of his life behind bars. “Two-thirds of all the DNA exonerations involving mistaken identifications were against black men.”
The above video link video shows Cornelius Dupree Jr. upon his release. He remarks that in 1979, he was wrongly accused and sentenced to 75 years in prison by an ALL-WHITE jury. What do you think would have happened if it were a black jury? The outcome would probably have been a lot different, and Dupree might not have been convicted or quite possibly, the sentence could have been lighter. Dupree says himself in the video, “I thought the system was supposed to be you are innocent until your proven guilty.” Wasn’t it the complete opposite in this case? Dupree’s civil rights were violated and he is now suing the state of Texas and hopes to gain 2.4 million dollars as indemnity. He appealed his conviction 3 times in the duration of his conviction but lost every time. “The state of Texas has had 41 DNA exonerations since 2002, 21 in Dallas County.”
All states need to exercise more caution when trying casing of possible mistaken identity and racial profiling. The positive in this case is that Dupree maintained his innocence throughout his 30 years of incarceration and now stands to live a comfortable life with his new wife and financial settlement. On the other hand however, money cannot secure happiness and make up for 30 years behind a prison wall.
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