The Story Of Ronald Cotton's Murder

In July of 1984, Jennifer Thompson, a 22-year-old college student, awoke around 3:00 a.m. to find someone in her apartment. When she asked who was there, a man jumped on her, pinned her arms to the side of her head, put a knife to her throat, and raped her. Despite her terror, she was determined to identify her rapist so he would pay for his crimes. Once her eyes adjusted to the dark, she used the light coming through her blinds and bedroom window, as well as her nightlight to see if he had any tattoos, scars, unusual jewelry, how he parted his hair, what he was wearing, and anything else that would be useful in identifying him. She made sure that when he allowed her to stand up she stood close to him so she could determine how tall he was.'

The police responded:

"We thought this might be the one," because Ronald Cotton had a prior

3 conviction for sexual assault, and they knew that he liked white women.

When Ronald Cotton learned that the police were looking for him, he went to the police station to clear up the matter. Unfortunately, Ronald

Cotton did not help himself during his interrogation. He was nervous; he got his dates mixed up, and his alibi did not check out. Furthermore, a piece of foam was missing from one of his shoes, and a similar piece of foam from a shoe was found at the crime scene. The police arrested him for both rapes and placed him in a seven person lineup. Jennifer had little difficulty identifying him from the lineup, but the second rape victim identified a foil from the lineup. The police informed Jennifer that she had identified the same man from the lineup whose photo she had picked out from the photo array a few days earlier.4

At trial, the only physical evidence the prosecution produced to connect Ronald Cotton to the crime was the piece of foam found at the crime scene and that he owned a flashlight that resembled the one used by the rapist. Jennifer, however, was a "terrific witness." During the

She said that "[i]t was the happiest day of [her] life."5

After spending two years in prison, Ronald Cotton learned from an inmate that another inmate, Bobby Poole, was bragging that he was the man who had raped Jennifer Thompson and the other woman. Cotton was eventually granted a new trial because the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the trial court had erred in not permitting the jury to learn that

2 COSTANZO, supra note 1, at 170.

3 Id.; O'Neill, supra note 1.

4 COSTANZO, supra note 1, at 170; O'Neill, supra note 1.

5 COSTANZO, supra note 1, at 170-71; O'Neill, supra note 1.

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ACCURACY OF EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY the second rape victim had failed to identify him from the lineup.6

In November of 1987, Cotton was retried, this time for both rapes, because the second rape victim had decided by the time of the second trial that Cotton was her rapist despite her failure to pick him out of a lineup several years earlier. Both Jennifer and the second rape victim told the jury that they were positive that Ronald Cotton was the rapist. The judge excluded testimony during the trial that Bobby Poole had admitted to committing the rapes. The jury found Ronald Cotton guilty, and he