Ronald Cotton
Another case demonstrating mistaken identity is the case of Ronald Cotton. In 1984, Jennifer Thompson was raped. During the attack, she studied the attacker's face, determined to identify him if she survived the attack. When presented with a photo lineup, she identified Cotton as her attacker. Twice, she testified against him, even after seeing Bobby Poole, the man who boasted to fellow inmates that he had committed the crimes for which Cotton was convicted. After Cotton's serving 10.5 years of his sentence, DNA testing conclusively proved that Poole was indeed the rapist.
Thompson has since become a critic of the reliability of eyewitness testimony. She was remorseful after learning that Ronald was an innocent man who was sent to prison. Upon release, Cotton was awarded $110,000 compensation from the State of North Carolina. Cotton and Thompson have reconciled to become close friends, and tour in support of eyewitness testimony reform.
After Cotton's release, Poole pled guilty to raping Thompson, but never responded to any of her letters. He died in prison in 2000.
Read more about this topic: Mistaken Identity, Case Studies
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—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)