After 30 years in prison,DNA analysis clears US man of rape

Prosecutors declared a Texas man innocent of a rape and robbery that put him in prison for 30 years,more than any other DNA exoneree in Texas.

DNA test results that came back barely a week after Cornelius Dupree Jr was paroled in July excluded him as the person who attacked a Dallas woman in 1979,prosecutors said on Monday. Dupree was just 20 when he was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 1980.

Now 51,he has spent more time wrongly imprisoned than any DNA exoneree in Texas,which has freed 41 wrongly convicted inmates through DNA since 2001,more than any other state.

Our Conviction Integrity Unit thoroughly reinvestigated this case,tested the biological evidence and based on the results,concluded Cornelius Dupree did not commit this crime, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said. Dupree is expected to have his aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon conviction overturned on Tuesday at an exoneration hearing in a Dallas court.

There have been 21 DNA exonerations in Dallas since 2001,more than any other county in the nation. Only two states,Illinois and New York,have freed more of the wrongly convicted through DNA evidence than Dallas,according to the Innocence Project,a New York-based legal centre representing Dupree that specialises in wrongful conviction cases.

US boy,10,faces charge in moms shooting

MILLERSBURG: A 10-year-old boy was charged as a juvenile with murder in the fatal shooting of his mother after authorities said he told a neighbour about the killing.

The boy appeared Tuesday in a Holmes County courtroom with his attorney,who entered the juvenile equivalent of a not guilty plea. A judge ordered the boy remain in Richland County Juvenile Detention as authorities probe the shooting.

Story continues below this ad

Deborah McVay,46,was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head Sunday night in Big Prairie,located about midway between Cleveland and Columbus,Holmes County Sheriff Tim Zimmerly said. Paramedics found McVay lying facedown on her living room floor,and she was pronounced dead at the scene,Zimmerly said. The cause that prompted the shooting was unknown. Authorities went to the house after a neighbour called a sheriffs dispatcher reporting the crime.