RichardWanke.Com

By IBTimes Reporter | January 7, 2011 12:47 PM EST

A Texas man has been exonerated by a Dallas County Judge when DNA evidence proved he was wrongly convicted in connection with a 1979 Dallas rape, robbery and abduction case.

On Tuesday, Judge Don Adams told Cornelius Dupree, Jr., 51, “You’re free to go” after DNA testing supported Dupree’s claim of innocence.

Dupree and another man, Anthony Massingill, 49, were convicted in connection with the December 1979 case in which a man and woman were abducted at gunpoint at a liquor store on Dolphin Road near Interstate 30. The woman was sexually assaulted by the two men who had hijacked their car.

Shortly thereafter, Dupree and Massingill, who were on their way to a party, were picked up by the police two miles from the abduction site because police thought they matched the description of a different rape and robbery that had occurred the previous day. At the time of arrest, Massingill was found in possession of a gun.

According to Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in wrongful conviction cases and represented Dupree, both Dupree and Massingill were misidentified in a photo lineup by the victim. Her male companion, who also was robbed, did not pick out either man when showed the same photo lineup.

Scheck said both men were in the same lineup, which is now against best practices used by law enforcement.

via DNA test shows Texas man who served 30 years in rape and robbery case is innocent.