Today is World DNA Day, a day that commemorates James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin’s breakthrough discovery of DNA’s unique double helix structure.
DNA — or deoxyribonucleic acid — is in every cell of every living organism and contains the “blueprint” for building and maintaining living beings. Though humans share 99.9% of their DNA with one another, the 0.1% of DNA that varies from person to person can tell us a lot about each individual.
This revelation played a huge part in establishing the Innocence Project as a legal clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law more than 30 years ago.
Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, who met as public defenders at the Bronx Legal Aid Society, realized that if DNA evidence could be used to convict someone of a crime, it could also be used to prove someone innocent. To date, the Innocence Project has used DNA to help exonerate 202 people of crimes they did not commit, 20 of whom were scheduled for execution.
As we recognize this major discovery in genetics today, we want to tell the stories of two wrongly convicted people who were exonerated using DNA testing to remind us of its profound impact on overcoming injustice in the criminal legal system.
Cornelius Dupree (Photo: Kenny Karpov/Innocence Project)
Cornelius Dupree: 30 Years After My Wrongful Conviction, DNA Testing Set Me Free
In November of 1979, Cornelius was a typical 19 year old living at home with his mom when his life took an unexpected and harsh turn. A week after a young couple was attacked outside of a Dallas liquor store, Cornelius and his friend Anthony Massingill were falsely charged with robbery and rape. Throughout the whole process he maintained his innocence — but because of flawed eyewitness testimony and a system plagued by prejudice and presumption of guilt, he was convicted of robbery. The rape charge was thrown out. Cornelius spent three decades in prison, working relentlessly on his case, studying law books in the library. He eventually realized that the DNA evidence linked to that rape would ultimately set him free, and so he wrote to the Innocence Project in the early 1990s. With the help of our legal team, DNA analysis conclusively proved what Cornelius had known all along — he was innocent. Please take a moment today to read more about Cornelius’ case and why
DNA holds the key to a future where innocence triumphs over injustice.
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Michelle Murphy at the 2024 Innocence Network Conference in New Orleans (Image: Claire Bangser/ Innocence Project)
Michelle Murphy: I Served 20 Years In Prison For My Son’s Murder — Until DNA Testing Proved My Innocence
Michelle Murphy is one of 15 women exonerated in the United States with the help of DNA, and the first woman in the state of Oklahoma. In 1994, Michelle was a 17-year-old mother of two young children when she woke up to find her 15-week-old baby in the kitchen, stabbed to death. She immediately ran to a neighbor’s house and called the police. Detectives interrogated Michelle for hours, without an attorney or family member present, while she was grieving the devastating loss of her son, and they eventually coerced her into falsely claiming that she accidentally killed him. Michelle was convicted of murdering her son and sentenced to life-without-parole. Despite many setbacks and betrayals, Michelle never gave up hope, and in 2014, DNA testing of crime scene evidence pointed to an unknown male as the real perpetrator. And exactly 20 years after her son’s murder, Michelle was finally exonerated. On World DNA Day, read more about Michelle’s case and hear her thoughts
on the immense impact DNA has on the pursuit of truth and justice.
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Founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld, the Innocence Project works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. Our work is guided by science and grounded in anti-racism.
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