Innocence Project online - I Didn’t Do It TV - 60 Minutes: Eye-Witness Testimony TV -
Twice in July 1984, an assailant broke into an apartment, severed phone wires, sexually assaulted a woman, searched through her belongings, and took money and other items. On August 1, 1984, Ronald Cotton was arrested for these crimes. In January 1985, Cotton was convicted by a jury of one count of rape and one count of burglary. In a second trial, in November 1987, Cotton was convicted of both rapes and two counts of burglary. An Alamance County Superior Court sentenced Cotton to life plus fifty-four years.
The prosecutor’s evidence at trial included a photo identification made by one of the victims, a police lineup identification made by one of the victims, a flashlight found in Cotton’s home that resembled the one used by the assailant, and rubber from Cotton’s tennis shoe that was consistent with rubber found at one of the crime scenes.
On appeal, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the 1985 conviction because the second victim had picked another man out of the lineup and the trial court had not allowed this evidence to be heard by the jury. In November 1987, Cotton was retried, this time for both rapes because the second victim decided that Cotton was her assailant. Before the second trial, a man in prison, who had been convicted for similar crimes, told another inmate that he had committed the crimes for which Cotton had been convicted. A superior court judge refused to allow this information into evidence, and Cotton was convicted of both rapes. The next year, Cotton’s appellate defender filed a brief but did not argue the failure to admit the second suspect’s confession, and the conviction was affirmed.
In 1994, the chief appellate defender requested that two new lawyers take over Cotton’s defense. They filed a motion for appropriate relief on the grounds of inadequate appeal counsel. They also filed a motion for DNA testing that was granted in October 1994. In the spring of 1995, the Burlington Police Department turned over all evidence that contained the assailant’s semen for DNA testing.
The samples from one victim were too deteriorated to be conclusive, but the samples from the other victim’s vaginal swab and underwear were subjected to PCR based DNA testing and showed no match to Cotton. At the defense’s request, the results were sent to the State Bureau of Investigation’s DNA database, containing the DNA patterns of convicted violent felons in North Carolina prisons. The state’s database showed a match with the convict who had earlier confessed to the crime. Innocence Project online article
Information surfaced that it resembled a local man – 22 year old Ronald Cotton. I Didn’t Do It: Ronald Cotton, Apple TV 2012
Ronald Cotton was arrested for her rape, and for the second victim. But it was his word against the accusers’. ibid.
Ronald Cotton was sentenced to life plus fifty years. ibid.
DNA testing exonerated Ronald Cotton of Jennifer Thompson’s rape. ibid.
He has suffered a stroke and faced bankruptcy. ibid.
It’s a cliché of courtroom dramas, that moment when the eye-witness is asked, Do you see the person who committed the crime here in this courtroom before you? 60 Minutes: Eyewitness Testimony I II, CBS 2009
An eye-witness who we now know was wrong. ibid.
He [Cotton] was locked up and days later put in a physical lineup. ibid.
His name was Bobby Poole. And he was in for rape. ibid.
A fragment of a single sperm with viable DNA: it proved what Ronald Cotton had been saying all along. ibid.
‘How wrong I was, and how good he was.’ ibid. victim
Over 75% of these innocent men were convicted in part because an eye-witness fingered the wrong person. ibid.