Picking Cotton

The case of Ronald Cotton as describe in Picking Cotton helps to show

the dangers of witness identification. Looking at the case as it was described

it would seem on the surface on that should have been the slam dunk case it

was thought to be. However, if you look at some of the elements of this case

you can see how the factors added even more credibility to the identificaton.

This book also offered a chance to see this case from both sides of the major

people involved Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton which

allowed us to see how each party was affected by the events.

In July 1984 Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, at the time just Jennifer

Thompson, was sleeping her in her bed in her apartment in Burlington, North

Carolina when she was awakened at 3:00 A.M. by “the sound of feet

shuffling.”1 Jennifer, after not hearing the noise again, fell back asleep until

she was again awakened by her attacker grazing her arm. Pressing a knife

against her neck the attacker said, “Shut up or I’ll cut you!”2 As her attacker

begain to sexually assult her Jennifer not only tried to formulte a method of

escape, but also tried to record every detail about her attacker she could. As

she said in the book, “I willed myself to note the details. I studied his face for

1 Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo, Picking Cotton:
Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, St. Martins Press, 2009 pg 12.

2 Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo, Picking Cotton:
Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, St. Martins Press, 2009 pg 12.
features to indentify.”3 It would be these features she comitted to memory

that would be used in the indentification.

After out witting her attacker enough to escape Jennifer reported her

rape to the police. While in the hospital the dective who was working this

case had asked Jennifer if she could indentify her attacker to which Jennifer

thought she would be able to recognize the man if she saw him again. She

was taken to the police station where she began to recite what happened to

her. After giving her statement she began to work with a sketch artist on a

composite of her asailant. As said earlier in the book she was able to garner

some key featuers of her attacker including “His narrow eyes, the pencil-thin

mustache, the repulsive lips, the nose so close to my own.”4

Leading up the physical lineup Jennifer was shown a photo line up of

potential suspects. Her instructions, as she described them, were “not to feel

compeled to make an identification, to take as long as I needed.”5 Unknown

to her at the time, Jennifer selected the photo of Ronald cotton. After the

photo identification Jennifer was asked to participate in a living line up. The

line up was to take place eleven days after the assult. Jennifer went to the

Burlington police station. Jennifer had assumed she would unseen by the

3 Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo, Picking Cotton:
Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, St. Martins Press, 2009 pg 13.

4 Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo, Picking Cotton:
Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, St. Martins Press, 2009 pg 21.

5 Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo, Picking Cotton:
Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, St. Martins Press, 2009 pg 32.
men in line up. She was given similar instructions to those of the photo line

up. However, as she said in the book, “I stiffened and tried to suck in air with

an audible gast. There were seven men lined up against the wall. All that

separated them from me was a conference room table.”6 The men were in

same room as Jennifer and fully able to see her. Jennifer felt that if she had

not picked the right man in the line up then he would be able to come after

he and as she stated in Picking Cotton “surley he would walk out of there,

find me, and finish the job.”7 Jennifer this time had identified Ronald Cotton

in person.

The method, for which Jennifer’s identification was obtained, did have

a number of flaws based off of the guidelines we studied in this class.

Althought not a bad example of eyewitness identification there were a few

points of note where some improvement in technique might have helped

Jennifer to make a better identification. A starting area would have been in

the instructions given to her before both the line up and the the photo ID.

When given her instructions Jennifer was under and impression that

her attacker was in the photos given. This was further reenforeced when

Jennifer was brought in for the physical lineup. She was sure her attacker

was present and able to see her; also, she knew that only her case was going

to be prosecuted due to the other victim. This could have caused Jennifer to

6 Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo, Picking Cotton:
Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, St. Martins Press, 2009 pg 35.

7 Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo, Picking Cotton:
Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, St. Martins Press, 2009 pg 37.
pick someone even if there were questions as to if this was the person who

attacked her or not.

The indentification might have also benifited on the side of the falsly

accused had Jennifer been asked to sign a confidence statement. She had

said in the book that her identification had been narrowed down to number

four and number five. In the book she stated that she was only sure it was

number five after he had resaid a line which had said differently before. He

said “Shut up or I’ll kill you!” orignally and then when asked again he said

“Shut up or I’ll cut you!” even noting that she felt he would be smart enough

to wear his hair different and wear different clothing.8 Having her sign a

statement that would have her attested to why she chose this person and

her degree of certainty she would have the incentive to be sure she was

picking the right person. Moving on from critiqing the identification and ways

to have made it more reliable this book was well written in that present both

sides of the story in having each person involved account.

This book being written as it was showed in great detail both sides of a

case of mistaken identity. First was the account of the attack by Jennifer. She

listed in great detail the things that happened to her and how it affected her

emotionally and physically. By the time she has identifed Ron there is almost

the feeling that she got him and that he was guilty because she had done

8 Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo, Picking Cotton:
Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, St. Martins Press, 2009 pgs 36 37
what had seemed to be such a great job of remembering key details about

her attacker.

The book then shifted to Ronald’s side of the events. This allowed a

look into not only false identification but other factors that could lead to a

false conviction of an innocent person. Ronald had mentioned in the book

that justice was not the same for everyone in the south. Ronald was a man

who was innocent and yet even without the identification from Jennifer he

had other obsticles that lead to him being imprisoned for this crime. He had

to deal with a plea to a charge he also claimed innocense on before when he

was imprisoned for breaking an entering as a juvenile. Durring the course of

questioning Ronald also had mixed up dates and thus had a given a false

alibi. Continuing on we also read about Ron appealing his trail only to end

up facing more jail time for his crimes. All of this helped to paint the picture

of how someones fight against a system can be seen as impossible when

they are falsly imprisoned for a crime they did not commit.