HOUSTON – State lawmakers are introducing new bills they hope will reduce the amount of wrongful convictions in Texas. Lawmakers said Texas has more wrongful convictions than any other state in the nation.
DNA evidence has led to the release of more than 40 people from Texas prisons in the last decade, and some lawmakers think police lineups are part of the problem.
To improve the system, lawmakers have introduced a few bills they believe will help with such injustices.
One would require all law enforcement agencies to adopt standard written policies on how to conduct lineups and take eyewitness testimony. Another would require agencies to record interrogations of people who are suspected in serious crimes.
Right now, only 12 percent of law enforcement agencies have written policies on how to conduct suspect lineups and take eyewitness accounts. Many lawmakers believe it’s why innocent men are getting wrongfully convicted.
Cornelius Dupree of Houston spent 30 years behind bars for a crime DNA later proved he didn’t commit. He says police officers picked him up off the street when he was 19. They said he looked like their suspect, and someone positively identified Dupree in a lineup. He was then wrongfully convicted of aggravated rape and robbery.
"I really believed that the system was you’re innocent until proven guilty, but once you get caught up in the system you see it’s just the opposite. The burden of proof is on you. You have to prove that you’re innocent," said Dupree.
Dupree is set to receive more than $2 million from the state for the wrongful conviction.
The bill concerning lineups and eyewitnesses accounts will soon be introduced in the House. Governor Rick Perry has already promised that he’ll sign it into law if it makes it to his desk.
