Cornelius Dupree Jr. served 30 years in prison before his conviction was overturned on Jan. 4, 2011, based on DNA evidence. Cory Session is the brother of Timothy Cole and the policy director for the Innocence Project of Texas.
There has been a lot of talk lately about the government taking away people’s freedoms, which both of us know about firsthand.
One of us, Cornelius Dupree, was arrested in 1979 for rape and aggravated robbery at the age of 19. Last week, after serving 30 years in prison, the courts finally admitted they had made a mistake after DNA testing proved this to be a wrongful conviction. And Cory Session had the unfortunate experience of seeing his brother branded the “Tech Rapist” and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Timothy Cole served 13 years before he died of an asthma attack in 1999 – in prison. After the real rapist confessed to Session’s mother, DNA testing proved Tim was innocent, and he was officially exonerated in 2009. Gov. Rick Perry pardoned Tim last year.
While both of us have every right to be angry with the government for the years that were stolen from us and our families, instead we’re focused on making sure that other people aren’t wrongfully convicted. Unfortunately, so far the state of Texas has done next to nothing to prevent wrongful convictions and improve the reliability of our justice system, despite the fact that it leads the nation in DNA exonerations. We are outraged that Texas has spent countless taxpayer dollars building prisons and incarcerating 155,000 people a year but has failed to adequately invest in essential procedures to protect the rights and safety of our citizens – or at least ensure that we only send guilty people to prison.
RichardWanke.Com 