NEW YORK TIMES
CAIRO — Thousands of inmates poured out of four prisons and the United States said it was organizing flights to evacuate its citizens Sunday, as the Egyptian army struggled to hold a capital seized by growing fears of lawlessness and buoyed by euphoria that three decades of President Hosni Mubarak’s rule may be coming to an end.
In a stunning collapse of authority, most police have withdrawn from major cities, and thousands of protesters, converging on what has become the center of the uprising in Liberation Square, defied yet again government orders of a nationwide curfew.
The American Embassy, which urged all Americans in Egypt to “consider leaving as soon as they can safely do so,” underlined a deep sense of pessimism among Egypt’s allies over Mubarak’s fate, as the uprising against his rule entered a sixth day.
The Egyptian army, the country’s most powerful institution and embedded deeply in all aspects of life here, deployed in greater numbers in the capital of 18 million. As many as 100 tanks and armored carriers gathered near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the very site where President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981, bringing Mr. Mubarak to power. Military helicopters flew over Cairo, circling Liberation Square through the day, and jets roared every few minutes across a late afternoon sky.
But the army took no steps against the protesters, who cheered as the helicopters passed overhead. In an unprecedented scene, some of them lofted a captain in uniform on their shoulders, marching him through a square suffused with protesters that cut across Egypt’s entrenched lines of class and religious devotion. In contrast to the anxiety and apprehension elsewhere in Cairo, where looters have broken into some shops, burned a shopping center and stolen cars, a carnival atmosphere descended on the square, where vendors offered food at discount prices and protesters posed for pictures in front of tanks scrawled with slogans like, “30 years of humiliation and poverty.”
Several hours after nightfall, Mohammed El Baradei, the Egyptian opposition figure and Nobel prize winner, arrived the square. Earlier in the day, he had called for Mr. Mubarak to leave office immediately to make way for a national unity government.
“It is loud and clear from everybody in Egypt that Mubarak has to leave today,” he said in an interview on CNN. He said Mr. Mubarak’s departure should be followed by a transition to a national unity government and “all the measures set in place for a free and fair election.”
Driven by reports of looting, prison breaks and rumors that swirled across Cairo, fed by Egyptian television’s unrelenting coverage of lawlessness, it was clear that many feared the menace could grow worse, and might even undermine the protesters’ demands.
“I wish we could be like the United States with our own democracy, but we can’t,” said Sarah Elyashy, a 33-year-old woman in the neighborhood of Heliopolis, where men armed with broomsticks and kitchen knives took to the streets to defend their homes against the threat of looters. “We have to have a ruler with an iron hand.”
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Pump prices around $3 may look like a bargain by spring
STAR/TRIBUNE
By SANDY SHORE , Associated Press
Gas pump prices that are around $3 a gallon now may seem like a bargain by the time your kids are on Easter egg hunts.
Pump prices have risen nearly 9 percent since Dec. 1 and topped $3.10 a gallon this week. That's the highest level since October 2008. The price may rise or fall a little over the next few months, but analysts expect it to range between $3.20 and $3.75 gallon by March and April ahead of the summer driving season.
The national average for regular gasoline about $3.12 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's nearly 12 cents more than a month ago and 38 cents above a year ago.
Average pump prices range from $2.81 to $3.70 in major cities. For example, the average in Salt Lake City is $2.74 a gallon and in New Orleans it's $2.97 a gallon. Drivers in San Francisco pay $3.44 a gallon, and in Honolulu gas is $3.58 a gallon.
Americans typically drive less in the winter. Demand is about 1 percentage point higher than a year ago but remains weaker than the historical average, said energy analyst Jim Ritterbusch. The nation's gasoline supplies remain above the five-year average.
By spring oil analyst Tom Kloza of Oil Price Information Service expects the average price to rise to between $3.50 and $3.75 a gallon.
For every penny the price at the pump increases, it costs consumers overall an additional $4 million, according to Cameron Hanover analyst Peter Beutel. If the price goes up a dime a gallon, consumers pay $40 million more each day for that increase.
By SANDY SHORE , Associated Press
Gas pump prices that are around $3 a gallon now may seem like a bargain by the time your kids are on Easter egg hunts.
Pump prices have risen nearly 9 percent since Dec. 1 and topped $3.10 a gallon this week. That's the highest level since October 2008. The price may rise or fall a little over the next few months, but analysts expect it to range between $3.20 and $3.75 gallon by March and April ahead of the summer driving season.
The national average for regular gasoline about $3.12 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's nearly 12 cents more than a month ago and 38 cents above a year ago.
Average pump prices range from $2.81 to $3.70 in major cities. For example, the average in Salt Lake City is $2.74 a gallon and in New Orleans it's $2.97 a gallon. Drivers in San Francisco pay $3.44 a gallon, and in Honolulu gas is $3.58 a gallon.
Americans typically drive less in the winter. Demand is about 1 percentage point higher than a year ago but remains weaker than the historical average, said energy analyst Jim Ritterbusch. The nation's gasoline supplies remain above the five-year average.
By spring oil analyst Tom Kloza of Oil Price Information Service expects the average price to rise to between $3.50 and $3.75 a gallon.
For every penny the price at the pump increases, it costs consumers overall an additional $4 million, according to Cameron Hanover analyst Peter Beutel. If the price goes up a dime a gallon, consumers pay $40 million more each day for that increase.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Obama, Chinese leader meet
STAR/TRIBUNES
By NEWS SERVICES
WASHINGTON - The leaders of the world's two most powerful economies unapologetically acknowledged their differences in a White House summit on Wednesday, but also stirred hopes for the U.S. and China to make progress on human rights and economic cooperation.
In a day of pomp and pageantry, President Obama placed the issue of human rights front and center in the U.S. relationship with the world's preeminent ascending power. And Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a rare concession, acknowledged that China needs to make more progress. He also agreed to ease Chinese regulations that limit foreign companies' access to Chinese markets.
The leaders, in their eighth meeting, held their ground on other issues. Obama repeated his assertions that China's currency is undervalued and that China needs to take steps to see that competition between the two superpowers is on a "level playing field."
Yet it appeared the summit would give Hu the respectful treatment he sought in the U.S. capital, and would satisfy Obama's need to look firm on the economic, security and human rights issues that have divided them. The White House also announced $45 billion worth of U.S.-China business deals, which Obama said would produce 235,000 U.S. jobs, many in manufacturing.
The two leaders met in what is likely to be their final summit, as Hu is expected to end his 10-year stewardship next year. After strife between the governments over economic, security issues and human rights, the summit was designed to stabilize the world's most important economic relationship. Both leaders emphasized their intentions to deepen their cooperation, even as they continue to disagree on many aspects of their complex relationship.
In a significant concession, China agreed to scrap a policy that favored Chinese technology companies for big government contracts, a move to help open markets to U.S. businesses, a senior administration official said. U.S. companies complained that the policy, known as "indigenous innovation," cut them out of one of China's most lucrative markets. Beijing also indicated it would ease regulations that have given an advantage to Chinese firms in government procurement.
Calling for the two countries to "break out of the old stereotypes that somehow China is simply taking manufacturing jobs and taking advantage of low wages," Obama said during a meeting with Hu and U.S. and Chinese business leaders that it was important for U.S. companies to be allowed into China's marketplace. The relationship between the powers, he said, must be "much more complex."
On a day that combined billion-dollar deals with talks on nuclear proliferation and trade imbalances, Obama's calls for a freer China constituted a significant shift from his previous statements playing down U.S. concerns. In a televised news conference, Obama called on China to live up to human rights values that he said were enshrined in the Chinese Constitution. He said history shows that "societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all people are upheld, including the universal rights of every human being."
Hu said China is a developing country at a "crucial stage of reform," and that "a lot needs to be done in China" regarding human rights. But he noted that China was willing to talk only within the confines of the "principle of noninterference in each other's internal affairs."
Administration officials said the human rights discussion continued in private as well, illustrating how a visit marked by public displays of harmony belied a more fractious relationship over matters that included North Korea and the Chinese currency. They said Obama pressed Hu specifically on China's imprisonment of its Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo.
By NEWS SERVICES
WASHINGTON - The leaders of the world's two most powerful economies unapologetically acknowledged their differences in a White House summit on Wednesday, but also stirred hopes for the U.S. and China to make progress on human rights and economic cooperation.
In a day of pomp and pageantry, President Obama placed the issue of human rights front and center in the U.S. relationship with the world's preeminent ascending power. And Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a rare concession, acknowledged that China needs to make more progress. He also agreed to ease Chinese regulations that limit foreign companies' access to Chinese markets.
The leaders, in their eighth meeting, held their ground on other issues. Obama repeated his assertions that China's currency is undervalued and that China needs to take steps to see that competition between the two superpowers is on a "level playing field."
Yet it appeared the summit would give Hu the respectful treatment he sought in the U.S. capital, and would satisfy Obama's need to look firm on the economic, security and human rights issues that have divided them. The White House also announced $45 billion worth of U.S.-China business deals, which Obama said would produce 235,000 U.S. jobs, many in manufacturing.
The two leaders met in what is likely to be their final summit, as Hu is expected to end his 10-year stewardship next year. After strife between the governments over economic, security issues and human rights, the summit was designed to stabilize the world's most important economic relationship. Both leaders emphasized their intentions to deepen their cooperation, even as they continue to disagree on many aspects of their complex relationship.
In a significant concession, China agreed to scrap a policy that favored Chinese technology companies for big government contracts, a move to help open markets to U.S. businesses, a senior administration official said. U.S. companies complained that the policy, known as "indigenous innovation," cut them out of one of China's most lucrative markets. Beijing also indicated it would ease regulations that have given an advantage to Chinese firms in government procurement.
Calling for the two countries to "break out of the old stereotypes that somehow China is simply taking manufacturing jobs and taking advantage of low wages," Obama said during a meeting with Hu and U.S. and Chinese business leaders that it was important for U.S. companies to be allowed into China's marketplace. The relationship between the powers, he said, must be "much more complex."
On a day that combined billion-dollar deals with talks on nuclear proliferation and trade imbalances, Obama's calls for a freer China constituted a significant shift from his previous statements playing down U.S. concerns. In a televised news conference, Obama called on China to live up to human rights values that he said were enshrined in the Chinese Constitution. He said history shows that "societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all people are upheld, including the universal rights of every human being."
Hu said China is a developing country at a "crucial stage of reform," and that "a lot needs to be done in China" regarding human rights. But he noted that China was willing to talk only within the confines of the "principle of noninterference in each other's internal affairs."
Administration officials said the human rights discussion continued in private as well, illustrating how a visit marked by public displays of harmony belied a more fractious relationship over matters that included North Korea and the Chinese currency. They said Obama pressed Hu specifically on China's imprisonment of its Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo.
Monday, January 17, 2011
U.S. seeks overhaul of school lunches
STAR/TRIBUNE
WASHINGTON - Schoolchildren would have to hold the fries -- and pick up more whole grains, fruits and vegetables -- on the lunch line under proposed new federal standards for school lunches.
The Agriculture Department proposal applies to lunches subsidized by the federal government and would be the first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in 15 years. The guidelines are expected to be announced Thursday.
They would require schools to cut sodium in those meals by more than half, use only whole grains and serve low-fat milk. They also would limit kids to only one cup of starchy vegetables a week, so schools couldn't offer french fries every day.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new standards could affect more than 32 million children and are crucial because kids can consume as much as half of their daily calories in school. "If we don't contain obesity in this country it's going to eat us alive in terms of health care costs," he said.
It comes just a few weeks after President Obama signed into law a child nutrition bill that will help schools pay for the healthier foods. That law also will extend similar nutrition standards to foods sold in schools that aren't subsidized by the government.
Some school groups have criticized the efforts, saying it will be hard for already-stretched schools to pay for the new requirements. Vilsack says he understands the challenges, but said the changes are necessary. He compares obesity and related diseases like diabetes to a truck barreling toward a child, and says the new guidelines are like a parent teaching a child to look both ways before he crosses the street.
He said, "You want your kid to be able to walk across the street without getting hit."
WASHINGTON - Schoolchildren would have to hold the fries -- and pick up more whole grains, fruits and vegetables -- on the lunch line under proposed new federal standards for school lunches.
The Agriculture Department proposal applies to lunches subsidized by the federal government and would be the first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in 15 years. The guidelines are expected to be announced Thursday.
They would require schools to cut sodium in those meals by more than half, use only whole grains and serve low-fat milk. They also would limit kids to only one cup of starchy vegetables a week, so schools couldn't offer french fries every day.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new standards could affect more than 32 million children and are crucial because kids can consume as much as half of their daily calories in school. "If we don't contain obesity in this country it's going to eat us alive in terms of health care costs," he said.
It comes just a few weeks after President Obama signed into law a child nutrition bill that will help schools pay for the healthier foods. That law also will extend similar nutrition standards to foods sold in schools that aren't subsidized by the government.
Some school groups have criticized the efforts, saying it will be hard for already-stretched schools to pay for the new requirements. Vilsack says he understands the challenges, but said the changes are necessary. He compares obesity and related diseases like diabetes to a truck barreling toward a child, and says the new guidelines are like a parent teaching a child to look both ways before he crosses the street.
He said, "You want your kid to be able to walk across the street without getting hit."
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Appeals court stay blocks order to remove memorial crosses from Utah highways
STAR/TRIBUNE
By JENNIFER DOBNER , Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY - A Denver appeals court has stayed an order that would remove 14 memorial crosses from Utah's highways intended to honor fallen officers and encourage safe driving.
The ruling gives the Utah attorneys general's office 90 days to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the 12-foot-high memorials are unconstitutional.
In August, a three-judge appeals court panel said the crosses represent an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and that the crosses, which bear the logo of the Utah Highway Patrol, should come down.
The Texas-based American Atheists Inc. and three of its Utah members sued the state in 2005 over the use of the highway patrol logo, contending the structures imply that the troopers who died at each location were Christians.
Utah attorneys have argued the memorials honor officers who lost their lives and encourage safe driving.
The American Atheists did not oppose the stay because the state agreed not to erect any new crosses while seeking a review of the case by the nation's highest court, the group's attorney Brian Barnard said.
But Barnard noted that a Tuesday ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in another dispute over a 43-foot cross memorial in a San Diego-area park strengthens the ruling in the Utah case.
Citing the 10th Circuit Court's ruling on the highway crosses, a panel of 9th Circuit judges found the towering white cross on Mount Soledad in La Jolla, Calif., as unconstitutional because it "primarily conveys a message of government endorsement of religion."
In a 50-page ruling, judges said that although the cross has been the centerpiece of a war veterans memorial since the 1990s, the context of its history, including religious and nonreligious uses, and in the prominence of the cross, which towers over a San Diego freeway and can be seen for miles, led them to their conclusion.
As in the Utah case, judges said the prominence of the cross would leave a "reasonable observer," particularly drivers on Interstate 5, with the conclusion that the cross holds only a religious purpose.
"The decision out of the 9th Circuit is real strong and comes to the same conclusion that the 10th Circuit did in our case. It says, 'Hey, a cross is the ultimate symbol of Christianity,'" said Barnard. "It really strengthens our position."
By JENNIFER DOBNER , Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY - A Denver appeals court has stayed an order that would remove 14 memorial crosses from Utah's highways intended to honor fallen officers and encourage safe driving.
The ruling gives the Utah attorneys general's office 90 days to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the 12-foot-high memorials are unconstitutional.
In August, a three-judge appeals court panel said the crosses represent an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and that the crosses, which bear the logo of the Utah Highway Patrol, should come down.
The Texas-based American Atheists Inc. and three of its Utah members sued the state in 2005 over the use of the highway patrol logo, contending the structures imply that the troopers who died at each location were Christians.
Utah attorneys have argued the memorials honor officers who lost their lives and encourage safe driving.
The American Atheists did not oppose the stay because the state agreed not to erect any new crosses while seeking a review of the case by the nation's highest court, the group's attorney Brian Barnard said.
But Barnard noted that a Tuesday ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in another dispute over a 43-foot cross memorial in a San Diego-area park strengthens the ruling in the Utah case.
Citing the 10th Circuit Court's ruling on the highway crosses, a panel of 9th Circuit judges found the towering white cross on Mount Soledad in La Jolla, Calif., as unconstitutional because it "primarily conveys a message of government endorsement of religion."
In a 50-page ruling, judges said that although the cross has been the centerpiece of a war veterans memorial since the 1990s, the context of its history, including religious and nonreligious uses, and in the prominence of the cross, which towers over a San Diego freeway and can be seen for miles, led them to their conclusion.
As in the Utah case, judges said the prominence of the cross would leave a "reasonable observer," particularly drivers on Interstate 5, with the conclusion that the cross holds only a religious purpose.
"The decision out of the 9th Circuit is real strong and comes to the same conclusion that the 10th Circuit did in our case. It says, 'Hey, a cross is the ultimate symbol of Christianity,'" said Barnard. "It really strengthens our position."
Monday, January 10, 2011
U.S. Rep. 17 others shot in Arizona
NPR
Law enforcement officials continue to piece together the facts in Saturday's shooting rampage that left a federal judge dead and a congresswoman critically injured in Arizona, and some are questioning whether divisive political rhetoric may have played a role.
At least six people died and at least a dozen were injured in the Saturday morning shooting at a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store parking lot, in which the gunman specifically targeted Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Pima County, Ariz. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said. Giffords was shot in the head, and the shooting continued until citizens tackled the suspected gunman, he said.
The dead included John Roll, chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Arizona. Also killed was Gabe Zimmerman, 30, the congresswoman's director of community outreach, and a 9-year-old girl. Two other Giffords staffers were injured.
At a news conference Saturday night, a clearly emotional Dupnik, who has been close to both Giffords and Roll, repeatedly cited what he characterized as the "vitriol" that has infected political discourse. He said that his own state has become "the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
There is reason to believe, he said, that the shooting suspect "may have a mental issue," adding that people like that "are especially susceptible to vitriol."
"That may be free speech, but it's not without consequences," he said.
The suspected gunman was tackled and held by people at the event until police arrived and took him into custody. Law enforcement sources told NPR the suspect was 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner.
The suspect still had ammunition in his weapon when he was tackled, Dupnik said. Law enforcement officials had previous contact with the suspect and he had made threats, the sheriff said.
Giffords, a moderate "Blue Dog" Democrat and gun rights advocate who in November eked out a win for a third term over Tea Party-backed Republican Jesse Kelly, underwent surgery at University Medical Center in Tucson. Hospital Director Pete Rhee said that a bullet had entered and exited the congresswoman's head, but that he was as "optimistic" as he could be in the situation.
There has been a rush to determine what had prompted the massacre in a state that has been roiled by incendiary debate over illegal immigrants and has also become ground zero for those questioning Obama's birthplace.
"It's not a good atmosphere right now, though I'm not saying that's what prompted this," said University of Arizona law professor Andy Silverman, who knew Roll well. "But things in Arizona are very tense, and we've become the incubator for a lot of immigration-related matters and now for the birthers, too."
As information about Loughner began to emerge later in the day — including online videos and comments posted under the same name as the Tucson native and Mountain View High School graduate — those in Arizona and Washington cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
Some online statements attributed to Loughner suggest an obsession with the nation's currency system and with grammar. In one online video posted under Loughner's name, an American flag is burned.
"It has been a difficult time politically for the country, and I'm sure bloggers and others will go crazy laying blame — on gun rights, on Tea Party people — trying to figure out who's fault it is," said Randy Graf, a Republican who served in the state Legislature with Giffords and lost to her in her first run for Congress.
"As we hear more about the alleged shooter, it seems he may be more like a person with problems whom you can't control," said Graf.
Law enforcement officials continue to piece together the facts in Saturday's shooting rampage that left a federal judge dead and a congresswoman critically injured in Arizona, and some are questioning whether divisive political rhetoric may have played a role.
At least six people died and at least a dozen were injured in the Saturday morning shooting at a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store parking lot, in which the gunman specifically targeted Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Pima County, Ariz. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said. Giffords was shot in the head, and the shooting continued until citizens tackled the suspected gunman, he said.
The dead included John Roll, chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Arizona. Also killed was Gabe Zimmerman, 30, the congresswoman's director of community outreach, and a 9-year-old girl. Two other Giffords staffers were injured.
At a news conference Saturday night, a clearly emotional Dupnik, who has been close to both Giffords and Roll, repeatedly cited what he characterized as the "vitriol" that has infected political discourse. He said that his own state has become "the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
There is reason to believe, he said, that the shooting suspect "may have a mental issue," adding that people like that "are especially susceptible to vitriol."
"That may be free speech, but it's not without consequences," he said.
The suspected gunman was tackled and held by people at the event until police arrived and took him into custody. Law enforcement sources told NPR the suspect was 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner.
The suspect still had ammunition in his weapon when he was tackled, Dupnik said. Law enforcement officials had previous contact with the suspect and he had made threats, the sheriff said.
Giffords, a moderate "Blue Dog" Democrat and gun rights advocate who in November eked out a win for a third term over Tea Party-backed Republican Jesse Kelly, underwent surgery at University Medical Center in Tucson. Hospital Director Pete Rhee said that a bullet had entered and exited the congresswoman's head, but that he was as "optimistic" as he could be in the situation.
There has been a rush to determine what had prompted the massacre in a state that has been roiled by incendiary debate over illegal immigrants and has also become ground zero for those questioning Obama's birthplace.
"It's not a good atmosphere right now, though I'm not saying that's what prompted this," said University of Arizona law professor Andy Silverman, who knew Roll well. "But things in Arizona are very tense, and we've become the incubator for a lot of immigration-related matters and now for the birthers, too."
As information about Loughner began to emerge later in the day — including online videos and comments posted under the same name as the Tucson native and Mountain View High School graduate — those in Arizona and Washington cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
Some online statements attributed to Loughner suggest an obsession with the nation's currency system and with grammar. In one online video posted under Loughner's name, an American flag is burned.
"It has been a difficult time politically for the country, and I'm sure bloggers and others will go crazy laying blame — on gun rights, on Tea Party people — trying to figure out who's fault it is," said Randy Graf, a Republican who served in the state Legislature with Giffords and lost to her in her first run for Congress.
"As we hear more about the alleged shooter, it seems he may be more like a person with problems whom you can't control," said Graf.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Man exonerated by DNA after 30 years in prison
STAR/TRIBUNE
By JEFF CARLTON, Associated Press
DALLAS - A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison had at least two chances to make parole and be set free -- if only he would admit he was a sex offender.
But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, and in the process serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.
"Whatever your truth is, you have to stick with it," Dupree, 51, said Tuesday, after a Dallas judge overturned his conviction.
Nationally, only two others exonerated by DNA evidence spent more time in prison, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in wrongful conviction cases and represented Dupree. James Bain was wrongly imprisoned for 35 years in Florida, and Lawrence McKinney spent more than 31 years in a Tennessee prison.
Dupree was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 1980 for the rape and robbery of a 26-year-old Dallas woman a year earlier. He was released in July on mandatory supervision, and lived under house arrest until October. About a week after his release, DNA test results came back proving his innocence in the sexual assault.
A day after his release, Dupree married his fiancée, Selma. The couple met two decades ago while he was in prison.
His exoneration hearing was delayed until Tuesday while authorities retested the DNA. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins supported Dupree's innocence claim.
Looking fit and trim in a dark suit, Dupree stood through most of the short hearing until state District Judge Don Adams told him, "You're free to go." One of Dupree's lawyers, Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck, called it "a glorious day." "It's a joy to be free again," Dupree said.
This latest wait was nothing for Dupree, who was up for parole as recently as 2004. He was set to be released and thought he was going home, until he learned he first would have to attend a sex offender treatment program.
Those in the program had to go through what is known as the "four R's." They are recognition, remorse, restitution and resolution, said Jim Shoemaker, who served two years with Dupree in the Boyd Unit, south of Dallas.
"He couldn't get past the first part," said Shoemaker, who drove up from Houston to attend Dupree's hearing.
Shoemaker said he spent years talking to Dupree in the prison recreation yard, and always believed his innocence.
"I got a lot of flak from the guys on the block," Shoemaker said. "But I always believed him. He has a quiet, peaceful demeanor."
Under Texas compensation laws for the wrongly imprisoned, Dupree is eligible for $80,000 for each year he was behind bars, plus a lifetime annuity. He could receive $2.4 million in a lump sum that is not subject to federal income tax.
By JEFF CARLTON, Associated Press
DALLAS - A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison had at least two chances to make parole and be set free -- if only he would admit he was a sex offender.
But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, and in the process serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.
"Whatever your truth is, you have to stick with it," Dupree, 51, said Tuesday, after a Dallas judge overturned his conviction.
Nationally, only two others exonerated by DNA evidence spent more time in prison, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in wrongful conviction cases and represented Dupree. James Bain was wrongly imprisoned for 35 years in Florida, and Lawrence McKinney spent more than 31 years in a Tennessee prison.
Dupree was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 1980 for the rape and robbery of a 26-year-old Dallas woman a year earlier. He was released in July on mandatory supervision, and lived under house arrest until October. About a week after his release, DNA test results came back proving his innocence in the sexual assault.
A day after his release, Dupree married his fiancée, Selma. The couple met two decades ago while he was in prison.
His exoneration hearing was delayed until Tuesday while authorities retested the DNA. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins supported Dupree's innocence claim.
Looking fit and trim in a dark suit, Dupree stood through most of the short hearing until state District Judge Don Adams told him, "You're free to go." One of Dupree's lawyers, Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck, called it "a glorious day." "It's a joy to be free again," Dupree said.
This latest wait was nothing for Dupree, who was up for parole as recently as 2004. He was set to be released and thought he was going home, until he learned he first would have to attend a sex offender treatment program.
Those in the program had to go through what is known as the "four R's." They are recognition, remorse, restitution and resolution, said Jim Shoemaker, who served two years with Dupree in the Boyd Unit, south of Dallas.
"He couldn't get past the first part," said Shoemaker, who drove up from Houston to attend Dupree's hearing.
Shoemaker said he spent years talking to Dupree in the prison recreation yard, and always believed his innocence.
"I got a lot of flak from the guys on the block," Shoemaker said. "But I always believed him. He has a quiet, peaceful demeanor."
Under Texas compensation laws for the wrongly imprisoned, Dupree is eligible for $80,000 for each year he was behind bars, plus a lifetime annuity. He could receive $2.4 million in a lump sum that is not subject to federal income tax.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Christians in Muslim countries come under attacks from al Qaeda
BEAUFORT OBSERVER
It would appear that al Qaeda has declared war on Christians who live in Muslim-majority countries. The most recent attack came in Alexandria, Egypt on New Year's Day when a suicide bomber killed 21 people and wounded 43 others at the Coptic Orthodox Church as hundreds of worshipers prayed as the New Year came in. Click here to read that story.
The New Year's Day attack was but the latest of what now appears to be a major shift in al Qaeda's War of Terror. On Christmas Day, six people died in attacks on two Christian churches in northeast Nigeria and six people were injured by a bomb in a Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. In November 52 people died in a Baghdad church where 100 Iraqi Catholics were captured by al Qaeda-linked gunmen, according to Reuters
The Pope has condemned the attacks and on New Year's Day President Obama spoke out against them. Readers will remember that it was in Egypt that Obama made his infamous "reconciliation speech" to the Muslim world. Since then there have been more attacks per month by Islamic jihadists terrorists and now it appears their chief targets are going to be minority Christians in Muslim countries. Whether the United States will be effective in bringing pressure on the Muslim countries to protect minority Christians remains to be seen.
It would appear that al Qaeda has declared war on Christians who live in Muslim-majority countries. The most recent attack came in Alexandria, Egypt on New Year's Day when a suicide bomber killed 21 people and wounded 43 others at the Coptic Orthodox Church as hundreds of worshipers prayed as the New Year came in. Click here to read that story.
The New Year's Day attack was but the latest of what now appears to be a major shift in al Qaeda's War of Terror. On Christmas Day, six people died in attacks on two Christian churches in northeast Nigeria and six people were injured by a bomb in a Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. In November 52 people died in a Baghdad church where 100 Iraqi Catholics were captured by al Qaeda-linked gunmen, according to Reuters
The Pope has condemned the attacks and on New Year's Day President Obama spoke out against them. Readers will remember that it was in Egypt that Obama made his infamous "reconciliation speech" to the Muslim world. Since then there have been more attacks per month by Islamic jihadists terrorists and now it appears their chief targets are going to be minority Christians in Muslim countries. Whether the United States will be effective in bringing pressure on the Muslim countries to protect minority Christians remains to be seen.