Justice Files - ronald cotton — Transcript

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1. 0:03It was a steamy summer night in
2. 0:05Burlington, North Carolina. Jennifer
3. 0:07Thompson was a 22-year-old college
4. 0:09student who lived alone here in the
5. 0:11Brookwood Garden Apartments.
6. 0:13At about 3:00 in the morning, she heard
7. 0:15a noise by the side of her bed.
8. 0:17When I first woke up, I actually tried
9. 0:18to go back to sleep. I was hoping that
10. 0:20it was a nightmare, and so I actually
11. 0:22tried to close my eyes again, and I
12. 0:23heard the noise again, and I turned my
13. 0:25head over to the side, and I said, "Who
14. 0:27is it? Who's there?"
15. 0:29And did anyone answer?
16. 0:30No. He just jumped up from the side of
17. 0:34the bed and straddled my hands and put
18. 0:36the knife to my throat.
19. 0:38Jennifer knew she couldn't fight him.
20. 0:40She was just 5'1", weighing 100 lb. She
21. 0:43tried to stay calm and to be smart.
22. 0:46So, I just figured that since I couldn't
23. 0:48fight, I would fight another way.
24. 0:51You would survive.
25. 0:52I would survive.
26. 0:53And you would help catch him.
27. 0:55That was my intention was to nail him to
28. 0:58the wall.
29. 1:00Even as she was being raped, Jennifer
30. 1:02summoned the strength to study her
31. 1:04attacker. In the streetlight through her
32. 1:06bedroom blinds, she tried to memorize
33. 1:08his face, his eyes, his hair.
34. 1:12She spoke to him, gathering clues,
35. 1:14winning his trust. After about half an
36. 1:16hour, she convinced him to put down the
37. 1:18knife and let her go to the kitchen to
38. 1:20get something to drink. Wrapped only in
39. 1:23a blanket, Jennifer saw her way out.
40. 1:27I was running the water. I was throwing
41. 1:29ice cubes in my metal sink. I was
42. 1:30opening up cabinets and drawers, making
43. 1:32enough noise that while I was making the
44. 1:34noise, I was slowly opening the door,
45. 1:36and
46. 1:37I just took that leap of faith and took
47. 1:40a big breath of air and just
48. 1:43ran.
49. 1:45Jennifer was taken to the hospital for a
50. 1:47rape examination kit, a full body search
51. 1:50for blood, hair, or semen evidence. It
52. 1:53was there that she learned her rapist
53. 1:55had struck again just an hour and a half
54. 1:58later and less than a mile from her
55. 2:00home.
56. 2:01Jennifer felt more determined than ever
57. 2:03to help police catch her attacker.
58. 2:06She made it very clear to me at the
59. 2:07onset that
60. 2:09she was going to get the guy that that
61. 2:11raped her. She made it her business to
62. 2:13look at him well so that she'd be able
63. 2:14to identify him later.
64. 2:15And she had the information to back it
65. 2:17up.
66. 2:18Yes.
67. 2:19He's an African-American male. He's in
68. 2:20his early 20s. He had on a a blue shirt
69. 2:23with white stripes. He had on dark pants
70. 2:25like army fatigue that I I thought they
71. 2:27were like army pants at the time. I
72. 2:29could describe his shoes.
73. 2:31Jennifer's memory was soon put to the
74. 2:33test. Feature by feature, she worked
75. 2:36with police to create a composite
76. 2:37sketch.
77. 2:38Did the eyes go up this way? Did they go
78. 2:40down that way? Ears and eyelashes and
79. 2:42nostrils. How did nostrils flare?
80. 2:44The sketch was posted all around
81. 2:46Burlington. Police received information
82. 2:48about six potential suspects, all with
83. 2:51criminal records, all with photos on
84. 2:53file with the police.
85. 2:55Two days after the crime, they called
86. 2:57Jennifer in to do a photographic lineup.
87. 3:00So, when you looked at the photos, did
88. 3:02one of them stand out to you?
89. 3:03Mhm.
90. 3:04Right away?
91. 3:06Yeah.
92. 3:06And whose was it?
93. 3:07It was Ronald Cotton's.
94. 3:09My mother boyfriend was standing on the
95. 3:10front porch.
96. 3:12And once I was get about ready to enter
97. 3:14the apartments,
98. 3:15he told me said, "Ronald, the police was
99. 3:16looking for you."
100. 3:18And I asked him, "For what?"
101. 3:20And he told me, "For a rape."
102. 3:22Ronald Cotton was 22 years old and
103. 3:24worked at a seafood restaurant near
104. 3:26Jennifer's home. He borrowed a
105. 3:28neighbor's car and drove to the police
106. 3:30station to try and clear things up.
107. 3:32Were you a little nervous going over
108. 3:34there knowing that they suspected you of
109. 3:36this very serious crime?
110. 3:37No, because I knew I hadn't committed no
111. 3:39crime.
112. 3:41Ronald Cotton had no way of knowing that
113. 3:43drive down to the police station would
114. 3:45be his last act as a free man for a long
115. 3:48time.
116. 3:49When he got there, he learned police had
117. 3:51found shoes under his bed that matched
118. 3:53the shoes that Jennifer described. The
119. 3:55shoes were missing chunks of insole,
120. 3:57similar to a piece of foam left behind
121. 3:59by the rapist. Cotton's flashlight was
122. 4:02identical to the one stolen from the
123. 4:04second victim's car.
124. 4:06And then there was his alibi. Cotton
125. 4:09told police he was with friends the
126. 4:10night of the rapes. His friends later
127. 4:12denied it. And Cotton had a record. One
128. 4:16conviction for breaking and entering,
129. 4:18another for assault with intent to
130. 4:20commit rape.
131. 4:23Ronald Cotton was under arrest.
132. 4:27The final test would be a physical
133. 4:29lineup, a chance for the victims to see
134. 4:31and hear their alleged attacker.
135. 4:34Cotton and six randomly selected men
136. 4:36were lined up right across the room from
137. 4:38Jennifer.
138. 4:40Her memory was critical because the
139. 4:42second victim hadn't gotten a good look
140. 4:44at her attacker.
141. 4:45You were number five.
142. 4:47Yes. They told me to step forward and
143. 4:49say, "Hey baby, how you doing? Shut up,
144. 4:51I'll kill you."
145. 4:52So, I stated it, turned around, stepped
146. 4:54back.
147. 4:56In January of 1985 in the Alamance
148. 4:59County Courthouse, Ronald Cotton went on
149. 5:01trial. With the circumstantial evidence
150. 5:03and Jennifer's powerful testimony, it
151. 5:06took a jury just a few hours to convict
152. 5:08Cotton of first-degree burglary and
153. 5:10first-degree rape. He was sentenced to
154. 5:13life plus 50 years.
155. 5:15I was so relieved. I thought this is it.
156. 5:18It is over. I can move on with my life.
157. 5:24Cotton filed an appeal, but appeals take
158. 5:26time. But as he waited in prison, Ronald
159. 5:29Cotton made a crucial discovery. Another
160. 5:32inmate arrived from the same town, also
161. 5:35convicted of rape. Another tall, black
162. 5:37man, a man Cotton thought looked very
163. 5:40much like the sketch of Jennifer's
164. 5:41rapist. That man was Bobby Poole.
165. 5:45I tell myself,
166. 5:46"You resemble the picture of the guy
167. 5:48that committed the crime I'm in here
168. 5:49for. I said, "Did you do it?" And he
169. 5:50said, "No."
170. 5:51But then later you heard some talk in
171. 5:53the prison
172. 5:54Yes.
173. 5:54that Bobby Poole was going around to
174. 5:56inmates and telling them that he, in
175. 5:58fact, had raped Jennifer Thompson and a
176. 6:01second woman that night, not you.
177. 6:03Yes.
178. 6:05Ronald Cotton wrote his lawyer,
179. 6:07"Mr. Moseley,
180. 6:09there is no doubt in my mind that Bobby
181. 6:11Poole did the crime I'm serving time
182. 6:13for.
183. 6:14I work in the kitchen here with him, as
184. 6:16well, and I sleep in the same dorm. Mr.
185. 6:19Moseley, Poole is the one."
186. 6:21Police had not known about Bobby Poole
187. 6:23at the time of Jennifer's rape, so his
188. 6:25photo was not one of the six she saw,
189. 6:28and he was not in the physical lineup.
190. 6:30Jennifer never saw Bobby Poole and
191. 6:32Ronald Cotton side-by-side
192. 6:35until the fall of 1987, when Cotton was
193. 6:38granted a new trial, and defense
194. 6:40attorney Phil Moseley put Jennifer's
195. 6:42memory to the test.
196. 6:44We had subpoenaed Bobby Poole into the
197. 6:46courtroom. And
198. 6:49at that time,
199. 6:50both Jennifer and the second rape victim
200. 6:53had an opportunity to see
201. 6:55Bobby Poole, see Ronald Cotton, right
202. 6:59there with each other.
203. 7:00When you saw him, did you think
204. 7:03maybe he's the man?
205. 7:05No.
206. 7:06Not even for a moment?
207. 7:08No.
208. 7:09You have to realize this has been 3
209. 7:11years now.
210. 7:13And
211. 7:14Ronald Cotton's face had become a
212. 7:17permanent fixture in my brain. He was
213. 7:20the face of my nightmares.
214. 7:22Every night he I couldn't go outside in
215. 7:25the dark. I couldn't I couldn't go from
216. 7:27my bathroom to my bedroom alone in the
217. 7:29dark.
218. 7:30And when you saw Bobby Poole,
219. 7:32I just thought, "Oh, this is another
220. 7:33game.
221. 7:34They're trying to throw me."
222. 7:36Both victims swore Cotton was their
223. 7:38rapist. A second jury voted to convict.
224. 7:41This time Cotton got two life sentences
225. 7:44plus 54 years.
226. 7:46You had to go back to prison with Bobby
227. 7:48Poole, a man you believed
228. 7:51had really committed the crimes you were
229. 7:53convicted of.
230. 7:54Yes.
231. 7:54How did you control yourself?
232. 7:56It was hard.
233. 7:57I wanted to really hurt this guy. But my
234. 8:00father, he told me he said, "No, he
235. 8:02said, don't do it." He said, "Just let
236. 8:03his conscience eat him
237. 8:05and eventually, you know, he'll
238. 8:06confess."
239. 8:11Ronald joined the prison choir to lift
240. 8:14his spirits.
241. 8:16It seemed Ronald Cotton would live out
242. 8:18his life behind bars.
243. 8:2010 years passed in prison, yet Ronald
244. 8:23Cotton never stopped trying to prove his
245. 8:24innocence. He watched the O.J. Simpson
246. 8:27trial and learned about DNA testing, a
247. 8:30technology that had not existed when he
248. 8:32went to trial.
249. 8:33Cotton got the attention of a University
250. 8:35of North Carolina law professor, Rich
251. 8:38Rosen.
252. 8:39Cotton told Rosen he'd like to try DNA
253. 8:41testing in his case.
254. 8:43My first reaction was to warn him that
255. 8:45it could boomerang. That if in fact
256. 8:47there was any chance his DNA could show
257. 8:49up in that, he needed to understand that
258. 8:52this could destroy any chance he would
259. 8:53have for a new trial and eventual
260. 8:55freedom. Once he said he wanted to go
261. 8:57ahead with it, then I was willing to
262. 8:59try, though I was still very skeptical
263. 9:02of the possibility of finding anything
264. 9:04to test.
265. 9:05But back at the Burlington Police
266. 9:07Department, sitting on a shelf in the
267. 9:08evidence room, was a paper bag with the
268. 9:11now 10-year-old evidence.
269. 9:14Inside the rape kit of the second
270. 9:15victim, on one of the vaginal swabs,
271. 9:18scientists were able to isolate a tiny
272. 9:20fragment of sperm that they could test
273. 9:23against Cotton's DNA.
274. 9:25The results confirmed what he had been
275. 9:27saying all along. The DNA did not match.
276. 9:31Ronald Cotton was an innocent man.
277. 9:34The lab obtained samples of Bobby
278. 9:36Poole's DNA and found a match. Science
279. 9:39proved Poole had raped the second
280. 9:41victim.
281. 9:42But in Jennifer's case, they couldn't
282. 9:43find any sperm to test, so Mike Golden
283. 9:46returned to the prison hoping to get
284. 9:49answers from Bobby Poole.
285. 9:51I think he saw that it was of no value
286. 9:53to continue to deny.
287. 9:55He laid out both sexual assaults, how
288. 9:57they occurred in the right order, how he
289. 9:59entered the
290. 10:00respective residences, how he found the
291. 10:02victims.
292. 10:03He knew details only the rapist would
293. 10:06know.
294. 10:06That's right.
295. 10:07You knew that day, 11 years after Ronald
296. 10:09Cotton went to prison,
297. 10:11Mhm.
298. 10:11that you had the wrong man.
299. 10:13Exactly.
300. 10:14How did you feel?
301. 10:15Terrible.
302. 10:16Why were you so sure it was Ronald
303. 10:19Cotton for all those years?
304. 10:21Because he looked like the man who raped
305. 10:23me.
306. 10:25And the more I saw him, and the more we
307. 10:28got physical evidence, it just all was,
308. 10:32yeah, this is the man. And he doesn't
309. 10:34have an alibi.
310. 10:35You know, your mind starts
311. 10:37telling you,
312. 10:39you're right. See, you were right.
313. 10:41On June 30th, 1995, Ronald Cotton walked
314. 10:44out of the Alamance County Courthouse a
315. 10:47free man.
316. 10:48It was a good feeling.
317. 10:50I looked out and
318. 10:52I said, "Thank God."
319. 10:54Slowly, carefully, Ronald Cotton set out
320. 10:57to rebuild his life. He got a job
321. 10:59working in the warehouse of LabCorp, the
322. 11:01company that performed the test that set
323. 11:03him free.
324. 11:05He fell in love with a coworker and got
325. 11:07married.
326. 11:08But while Ronald Cotton flourished,
327. 11:10Jennifer fell apart. She couldn't sleep.
328. 11:13She sat and cried for hours at a time.