On July 29, 1984, at about 3 a.m., a man broke into the apartment of 22-year-old Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and sexually assaulted her as he held a knife to her throat. She was able to escape out the back door and sought help. Later that night, another woman was sexually assaulted in the same neighborhood.
Police searched Thompson-Cannino’s apartment and found a piece of foam rubber that appeared to come from the insole of a shoe. It did not appear to have come from any of Thompson-Cannino’s shoes. Police found a drop of blood at the scene of the second assault that was not the victim’s blood.
Thompson-Cannino worked with police to create a composite sketch that was publicized. She described her attacker as a tall, light-skinned Black man. Police received a tip that 22-year-old Ronald Cotton, who had been arrested as a teen-ager for breaking and entering and attempted second-degree assault, resembled the sketch.
Police created a photographic lineup that included Cotton’s photograph. Upon viewing the lineup, Thompson-Cannino said that “it is between number four and number five.” She viewed it a second time and identified number five, which was Cotton.
The other woman who had been assaulted viewed the same photographic lineup but was unable to make an identification. She said she did not see her attacker and only remembered that he had a flashlight.
Cotton was arrested on July 31, 1984. The police searched his house and found a pair of tennis shoes with foam insoles that appeared similar to the piece of foam found in Thompson-Cannino’s apartment.
On August 1, 1984, Thompson-Cannino viewed a live lineup. She again identified Cotton as her attacker. The other woman who was sexually assaulted viewed the lineup and again did not make an identification.
Cotton was charged with first-degree rape, first-degree burglary, and first-degree sexual offense.
Cotton went to trial in Alamance County Superior Court in January 1985. Thompson-Cannino testified and identified him as her attacker.
During the cross-examination of Burlington Police Detective Mike Gauldin, Judge Anthony Brannon admitted evidence showing that within a few hours of the attack on Thompson-Cannino, two similar crimes were committed nearby, one in the same condominium complex
and the other a few blocks away. In all three instances, a “light-skinned” Black man wearing a blue shirt with white stripes entered the rear of the dwelling after rendering an outside light inoperable. Each time, the attacker made a statement to the victim before assaulting her, such as: “Hey baby, how are you doing?”
The defense sought to present evidence that the victim of one of the two similar attacks was shown the identical lineup as Thompson-Cannino and positively identified subject number four as the perpetrator. The trial court excluded the evidence as irrelevant.
The prosecution also presented evidence of a flashlight found in Cotton's home that resembled one said to be used by the attacker and rubber from Cotton's shoe that a crime laboratory analyst said was similar to the piece of foam rubber found at Thompson-Cannino’s apartment.
Cotton’s relatives testified that he was at home asleep at the time of the crime. Cotton did not testify.
On January 17, 1985, the jury convicted Cotton of one count of rape and one count of burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years.
Two years later, in January 1987, the Supreme Court of North Carolina reversed the convictions and ordered a new trial. The court ruled that the defense should have been allowed to present the evidence of the identification by the victim of the other rape of someone other than Cotton.
When Cotton went to trial a second time in November 1987, he was then charged with the rapes Thompson-Cannino and the other woman. By this time, the woman who was the second victim had identified Cotton as her attacker and said she had been too afraid to identify him right after the crime.
The defense sought to introduce evidence that a man named Bobbie Poole had been subsequently arrested for two other sexual assaults, and that his blood type was the same as the blood found in the apartment of the second victim who had identified Cotton.
Outside the jury’s presence, Poole was brought into the courtroom. Thompson-Cannino and the other woman both said that he was not their attacker. Judge Anthony Brannon denied the defense motion to present Poole as an alternate suspect.
At the conclusion of this trial in November 1987, Cotton was convicted of both rapes and two counts of burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 54 years.
In August 1990, the Court of Appeals of North Carolina affirmed his convictions.
In the spring of 1995, at the request of the defense, the Burlington Police Department turned over the physical evidence, which included the rape kits for both victims, for DNA testing.
Tests conducted in May 1995 excluded Cotton. At the defense’s request, the results were sent to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation's DNA database, which linked the DNA profile from the evidence to Poole’s DNA profile. By that time, Poole had been convicted of other sexual assaults, and while in prison had admitted to other inmates that he had committed both crimes.
On June 30, 1995, after the district attorney and the defense filed a joint motion to vacate and dismiss the charges, Cotton’s convictions were vacated. The charges were dismissed, and Cotton was released after more than 10 years in prison.
Poole later confessed to the prosecution that he committed both rapes for which Cotton had been convicted. On July 11, 1995,, he pled guilty to both crimes and was sentenced to 70 years in prison, which was added to the life sentence he was already serving for the other sexual assault convictions.
On July 12, 1995, Governor James Hunt pardoned Cotton.
Soon after his release, Cotton got a job in the warehouse of Labcorp, the company that tested the DNA evidence that proved his innocence. He also married, had a child, and bought a piece of land. He received $110,000 from the state for his wrongful conviction. Thompson-Cannino and Cotton met in person for the first time after his exoneration. They became friends and began to travel around the country to speak about wrongful convictions and reforms, especially for eyewitness identification procedures, to try to prevent future wrongful convictions. In 2009, they co-authored a book: Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption.
–Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 01-21-2026
