The Case of Ronald Cotton

The Case of Ronald Cotton

The Crime

In July of 1984, in North Carolina, a white woman named Jennifer Thompson was sleeping
in her apartment when a man cut her phone lines, shattered her porch light, and broke into
her apartment. She woke up to the man standing next to her bed, holding a knife to her throat.
Over the next half hour, she was brutally raped, but Jennifer made herself study her attacker
so, if she ever got the chance, she would be able to identify him and send him to prison. After
tricking her assailant into letting her get up, she escaped and went to the hospital. Her
assailant fled the scene, only to rape another woman half a mile away.

Investigation and Trial

With Jennifer’s help, the police were able to create a composite sketch of her attacker, using
the details she studied while she was being attacked. After the sketch was released to the
public, tips were received about a man named Ronald Cotton who worked in the area, and
had a prior felony record. Jennifer was presented with a photo lineup of six different
African-American men, and was told that the perpetrator may or may not be present in the
lineup. After taking her time studying the pictures, she picked out Ronald Cotton from the
lineup and said she was positive this was her rapist. After being picked up by police, Cotton
gave what he thought was a detailed alibi, but he had actually gotten his weekends switched
up. This made police believe he was giving a false alibi, and he was locked up. Days later,
Jennifer picked him out of a physical lineup, and his fate was sealed.

At trial, the jury was told about pieces of evidence that pointed to Cotton as the perpetrator,
such as his false alibi, a flashlight found in his home resembling one used by the assailant,
rubber from Cotton’s shoe that was similar to rubber found at the scene, and of course
Jennifer’s identification. In January of 1985, the jury convicted Cotton of rape and burglary. In
November 1987, he was convicted on another count of rape and burglary for the second
woman that was raped that night. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years.

Exoneration

In 1995, an inmate in Cotton’s prison by the name of Bobby Poole came in contact with
Cotton who resembled the composite sketch that Jennifer helped produce. Inmates in the
prison even mixed the two up, calling each other by the wrong name. Poole confessed to
another inmate that he was the true perpetrator of the crime. Cotton’s case caught a break
when the police department turned over the DNA sample from the semen to the defense,
after being tested it was proven that Cotton was not a match to the sample, but Bobby Poole
was. Cotton was released from prison on June 30, 1995, after serving 10 years. After being
released, Cotton sued and received $110,000 from the state for his wrongful conviction.
Ronald and Jennifer have now become good friends and travel around the country teaching
about eyewitness misidentifications and wrongful conviction.

Eyewitness Testimony Part 1 [Video file]. (2009, March 9). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-SBTRLoPuo

Eyewitness Testimony Part 2 [Video file]. (2012, October 30). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtelV9lmzQc

Ronald Cotton - Innocence Project. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.innocenceproject.org/cases/ronald-cotton/