Ronald Cotton

Ronald Cotton is a North Carolinan man who dindu nuffin.

In 1984, a college girl named Jennifer Thompson was raped by a rampant bed intruder, because she didn't hide her kids, hide her wife, hide her kids, hide her wife, and hide her husband 'cause they raping everyone out there. While she was being raped, she decided to do the supposedly intelligent thing at the time and studied her rapist, trying to remember all the details of his face that she could. Afterwards, she ran and told that homeboy, home, home, homeboy about the incident and tried to pick her rapist out of a lineup based on her memories of him.

Thompson testified twice against Cotton, even though Bobby Poole, the real rapist, had been bragging to the other inmates in Cotton's prison to have done the crimes Cotton was sentenced for. After Cotton served 10.5 years in prison, DNA tests conclusively showed that Poole, and not Cotton, had committed the rape. Initially, Thompson was indignant, but after being faced with the facts, she reportedly became intensely remorseful and ashamed, yet still not enough to appear so on national TV.

Contrary to popular expectation, Cotton did not seek revenge on Thompson. Instead, these days, the two travel the US spreading awareness of the unreliability of eyewitness evidence.