#050 Jason Flom with Ronald Cotton
Wrongful Conviction
Lava for Good Podcasts
4.4 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2018
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In July 1984, an assailant broke into Jennifer Thompson-Cannino’s apartment and sexually assaulted her; later that night, the assailant broke into another apartment and sexually assaulted a second woman. Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, then a 22-year-old college student, made every effort to study the perpetrator’s face while he was assaulting her. Ms. Thompson-Cannino first chose Ronald Cotton as her attacker in a photo lineup. Soon after, she chose him again in a live lineup – she was 100% sure she had the right man. In January 1985, Ronald Cotton was convicted by a jury of one count of rape and one count of burglary. In a second trial, in November 1987, Ronald was convicted of both rapes and two counts of burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison plus fifty-four years. Ronald was unsuccessful overturning his conviction in several appeals, but in the spring of 1995, his case was given a major break: the Burlington Police Department turned over all evidence, which included the assailant’s semen for DNA testing, to the defense. When the DNA test results were reported in May 1995, the district attorney and the defense motioned to dismiss all charges. On June 30, 1995, Ronald Cotton was officially cleared of all charges and released from prison after serving over 10 years. In July 1995, the governor of North Carolina officially pardoned him. Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton met for the first time after his exoneration and immediately became good friends. They appear together on *Wrongful Conviction *and travel around the country working to spread the word about wrongful convictions and reforms – especially for eyewitness identification procedures – that can prevent future injustice.
https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | America has 2.2 million people in prison. |
| 0:04.9 | It's just 1% as wrong. |
| 0:06.5 | That's 22,000 people. |
| 0:08.8 | That's a lot of people's lives destroyed. |
| 0:13.2 | If the system want to take you out of society, |
| 0:18.9 | they will do it. |
| 0:20.2 | No matter what laws they have to break, |
| 0:22.4 | saying that they are enforcing the laws, |
| 0:24.5 | but they are breaking the law. |
| 0:27.3 | Having to hear those people say that I was guilty of a crime |
| 0:30.7 | that I did not commit, |
| 0:32.1 | and then hear my family break down behind me |
| 0:34.2 | and not be able to do anything about it, |
| 0:36.4 | I can't describe the crushing weight that was. |
| 0:39.9 | I'm not anti-police. |
| 0:41.6 | I'm just anti-corruption. |
| 0:44.5 | A lot of times we look and we see something happen to somebody |
| 0:47.9 | and that's the first thing we say |
| 0:49.2 | that could never happen to me, but it can. |
| 0:57.2 | This is a wrongful conviction. |
| 1:08.9 | What's up, y'all? |
| 1:09.7 | My name is Mimi Walker and I'm your resident, |
... |
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