Eyewitness Testimony Part 1

>> It's a cliche of
courtroom dramas.

That moment when the
eyewitness is asked,

do you see the person who

committed the crime here

in this courtroom
before you?

Well, it happens in

real courtrooms
all the time.

And to jurors, that
point of the finger by

a confident witness is

about as damning as
evidence can get.

But there is one type of

evidence that's even more

persuasive and that,
of course, is DNA.

There have been 233 people

exonerated by DNA
in this country,

and now a stunning
pattern has emerged.

More than three-quarters

of them were
sent to prison,

at least in part because

an eyewitness
pointed a finger,

an eyewitness who we
now know was wrong.

It was hot and humid
in Burlington,

North Carolina,
on the night

of July 28, 1984.

Jennifer Thompson,

then a 22-year-old
college student,

had gone to bed early in

her off-campus apartment.

As she slept, a man

shattered the light bulb
near her back door,

cut her phone line
and broke in.

>> I remember waking up

and turning my head to
the side and saying,

who's there? Who is it?

And I saw the top
of someone's head

sliding beside
my mattress.

And I screamed and I

felt a blade go
to my throat.

>> A knife?

>> A knife. He told

me to shut up or he
was going to kill me.

>> Her first thought
was to offer

him anything she
had to go away.

>> You can have
my credit card.

You can have my wallet,

You can have anything in

the apartment.

You can have my car.

And he looked
at me and said,

I don't want your money.

And I knew what was
getting ready to happen.

>> She vowed to
stay alert and

study him so that
if she lived,

she could help put
him away forever.

>> What is his voice?

Does he have an accent?

Does he have a scar?
Is there a tattoo?

>> He's raping you, and

you're studying his face.

>> I was just trying
to pay attention to

a detail that
if I survived,

and that was my plan,

I'd be able to help
the police catch him.

>> After about
half an hour,

Jennifer tricked
the rapist

into letting her get up

and fix him a drink,

and she ran out
the back door.

He fled and raped

a second woman
half a mile away.

Detective Mike Gauldin met

Jennifer at the hospital.

>> The first comment I

remember her
making was that,

I'm going to get

this guy that
did this to me.

She said, I took the
time to look at him.

I will be able to identify

him if I'm given
an opportunity.

Detective Gauldin
worked with

Jennifer to make a
composite sketch,

poring over eyes,
noses, ears,

lips, trying to recreate

the face she had
seen that night.

The sketch went out and

tips started coming in.

One of those
tips was about

a young man named
Ronald Cotton,

who worked at a
restaurant near

the scene of both
rapes and had

a record a guilty
plea to breaking and

entering and as a teenager
to sexual assault.

Three days after the rape,

Mike Gauldin
called Jennifer

in to do a photo lineup.

He lay these six pictures
down on the table,

said the perpetrator
may or may not be

one of them, and told
her to take her time.

Does she say
immediately, that's him?

>> No, she studied
each photograph.

>> I can remember

almost feeling
like I was at

an SAT test where

you start narrowing
down your choices.

You can discount A and B.

>> Like multiple choices.

>> Exactly.

>> According to
the police report,

Jennifer studied
the pictures

for five minutes.

>> She picked up
Ron's photograph

and said, that's the
man who raped me.

>> And you must
have said, are

you sure? And
she said yes?

>> Oh, yes, certainly.

>> Ronald Cotton heard

the news from his
mother's boyfriend.

>> He told me, Ron,

he said, police are
looking for you.

And I said, for what?

He told me, rape.

I said, I didn't

commit such a
crime like that.

>> Did you panic?

>> I didn't panic.

I'm trying to
figure out why.

>> He comes in
and gives me

a very detailed account
of where he was,

who he was with
that night.

As it turns out, that
was a false alibi.

I realized later that I

had got my
weekends confused.

And so, therefore, it gave

him the reason to think
that I was lying.

>> This was
August 1st, 1984.

>> Right.

>> You go in to
clear yourself.

When did you
actually leave?

>> I didn't.

>> He was locked up and

days later, put in
a physical lineup.

>> I'm number 5.

>> You scared?

>> I was very scared.
I was so nervous.

I was trembling. I felt
my body just shaking.

>> They were asked
to step forward

and speak and step back.

>> I can remember

looking to the
detective and saying,

it's between four and

five going to have
them do it again.

>> And then she knew it

was number 5,
Ronald Cotton.

Did you feel
absolutely certain?

>> Absolutely certain.

>> Did anybody say
to you, good job?

>> Well, what was
said to me afterwards

was that's the same person

you picked out in
the photo lineup.

So in my mind, I
thought, bingo.

I did it right.
I did it right.

>> In a week-long trial,

the jury heard about

Ronald Cotton's
faulty alibi,

his clothing that matched

Jennifer's description
and a piece of

foam found on her floor

that seemed to come
from one of his shoes.

And most powerfully,

they heard from Jennifer.

When they ask you,
do you recognize

the man who did
this to you?

Did you point to him?

>> It was Ronald Cotton.

It was Ronald Cotton.

>> What she called me I

ain't pointing a finger.

And that's all it
takes it seemed like.

>> What did
that feel like?

>> It felt like

someone pushing a
knife through me.

>> It took the jury
just 40 minutes.

The verdict guilty
on all counts.

>> And he was sentenced
to life in 50 years.

And it was for me
that moment that

you know the justice
system works,

because I am
the victim, and

he's a horrible person,

and he will never
ever be free again.

>> Ronald Cotton was
handcuffed, shackled,

and taken to North
Carolina's Central Prison.

He was 22 years old.

>> They say, grown
men cry a lot.

I grabbed my pillow many
times and hugged it.

Wishing I was
hugging my mom,

my dad, sister, brother.

I wish it didn't
have to be this way.

>> He started working
in the prison kitchen,

singing in the choir and

writing letter after
letter to his attorneys,

hoping to get a new trial.

Then one day, as he

watched a new inmate
being brought in,

he had a strange feeling.

>> I said, excuse me.

I said, you look familiar.

I said, where
are you from?

He said, I'm
from Burlington.

I said, I am, too.

I said, you're kind of

resembling the drawing up

a suspect in a crime of

which I'm false in prison.

Well, did you
commit this crime?

And he told me,
no, he did not.

>> Wait a sec. You saw

him and thought of that
composite drawing?

His name was Bobby Poole,

and he was in for rape.

He started working in

the prison kitchen, too.

>> And the stewardess
was calling me

Poole instead of Cotton.

>> They were calling
you by his name.

In other words, people

were mistaking
the two of you.

>> Yes, exactly.

>> Then a fellow inmate

told him that he'd heard

Bobby Poole admit to

raping Jennifer and the

other woman that night.

Ronald Cotton won a new
trial and his lawyers

call Bobby Poole to

the stand with Jennifer
sitting right there.

It was the moment Ronald

Cotton had been
hoping for.

Bobby Poole is in
the courtroom.

You look over there.
What happens inside you?

>> Nothing.

>> Nothing.

>> Nothing. As a
matter of fact,

the strongest emotion
I felt was anger at

the defense because I
thought, how dare you?

How dare you question me?

How dare you try to

paint me as
someone who could

possibly have
forgotten what

my rapist looked like?

I mean, the one person
you would never

forget how dare you?

>> Ronald Cotton was

convicted again this time,

given two life sentences.

Back in prison,
seven years later,

he and everyone else was

riveted by a
big news story,

the trial of OJ Simpson.

>> I would get my radio,

put my your plugged and go

outside, sit in a corner.

>> And listen
to the trial.

>> Yeah.

>> He was intrigued
by something he

had never heard of, DNA.

He wrote to his
new attorney,

law professor Rich Rosen.

Rosen warned him that
there probably wasn't

any evidence left to
test and if there was,

DNA could cut both ways.

>> Understand, if the DNA

comes back and shows
that you did this crime,

whatever legal issues we

have don't make any
bit of difference.

You're going to
spend the rest

of your life in prison.

>> He warned you that

if it comes up
positive, you're sunk.

>> I told him to

put his foot down
and go with it.

>> Packed away on
the shelves of

the Burlington Police
Department was

10-year-old evidence

from the two
rapes that night.

Inside one of the rape
kits was a fragment

of a single sperm
with viable DNA.

It proved what
Ronald Cotton

had been saying all along.

He was innocent and

the rapist was
Bobby Poole.

Within days, Ronald
Cotton was back in court.

>> You're walking out
here today as freeman.

>> This time,
to be released.

So not only do you find

out that Ron didn't
do the crime,

you find out
Bobby Poole did?

>> It was just

utter shock,
really, disbelief.

I mean, by this time,
this is 11 years later.

And I know that I've
been involved in a case,

a man's lost 11
years of his life.

And I was so sad for
him and his family.

>> In the years since

Ronald Cotton's
conviction,

Jennifer had married
and had children.

Are you the one
that tells her?

>> Yes. Her reaction.
No, it can't be true.

It's not possible. I know

Ronald Cotton raped me.

There's no question
in my mind.

>> It was like someone
had just taken

my life and turned
it upside down.

>> She cried?

>> Oh, she cried.
She broke down.

I mean, she took it all

on herself, the guilt.

I did this to that man.

>> Shame?

>> Shame. Terrible shame.

Suffocating,
debilitating shame.

>> But when she thought

or dreamed about
that night,

it was still Ronald
Cotton's face she saw.

To get past it, she asked

if he would meet with
her at a local church.

>> I remember
him walking into

the church and I

physically could
not stand up.

>> She was
nervous, scared.

>> I started to
cry immediately,

and I looked at him
and I said, Ron,

if I spent every second

of every minute,
every hour,

for the rest of my life

telling you how
sorry I am,

it wouldn't come close
to how my heart feels.

I'm so sorry.

And Ronald just leaned
down. He took my hand.

>> Oh, gosh.

>> And he looked at me.

He said, I forgive you.

>> I told her.

I said, Jennifer,
I forgive you.

I don't want you to look
over your shoulder.

I just want us to be happy

and move on in life.

>> The minute
he forgave me,

it's like my heart

physically
started to heal.

And I thought, this is

what grace and
mercy is all about.

This is what
they teach you

in church that none
of us ever get.

And here was
this man that I

had hated with, I mean,

I used to pray every
day of my life.

During those 11 years
that he would die.

That he would be
raped in prison

and someone would
kill him in prison.

That was my prayer to God.

And here was this
man who with

grace and mercy
just forgave me.

>> That is overwhelming.
It's overwhelming.

>> How wrong I was
and how good he is.

>> How is it that Jennifer
could have studied

her rapist so carefully

and still made
this mistake?

And how could she have
failed to recognize

Bobby Poole, the
actual rapist,

when he sat right
in front of

her in the courtroom
three years later?

That part of the story
when we come back.