Prison Life
The path to conviction and exoneration of Ronald Cotton was not a smooth one. In prison for the first time, Cotton’s life was anything but easy. Cotton had a hard time adjusting to prison life and making friends. At one point in time, he was jailed with Bobby Poole, the man responsible for the crimes Ronald Cotton was convicted of. Trying to stay calm and collected throughout his sentence, Cotton still found himself in fights and at one point, ended up in solitary confinement. He had also undergone several prison transfers over the decade he was in jail. Along with this, Cotton’s mother was very sick. This caused an unnecessary amount of stress for Cotton (Thompson-Canino, Cotton, & Torneo, 2009).
Being wrongfully accused has many consequences most of which are universal to all wrongful convictions. The most evident one is the personality change following a catastrophic event. After spending 10 years in prison—especially for something you didn’t do—a person changes and feels like the world is against them. It also affects your social skills. After spending 10 years in prison the world changes. Cotton said it was difficult adjusting back to the society and getting out of the jail mentality. Also, it has major effects on the dating life of wrongfully accused. This is especially true for people wrongfully convicted of sex crimes because they are still on the national sex offender registry, and it’s hard to get someone to understand that (Irazola, Williamson, Stricker, Niedzwiecki, 2014). Luckily for Ronald Cotton he found someone understanding and it didn’t affect him as much as others.
Appeals and Road to Exoneration
Cotton tried overturning his conviction through several appeals but was unsuccessful. Many of his appeals were denied and he was unable to get his evidence looked at. In 1987, Ronald Cotton’s conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in North Carolina and he was granted a new trial. Unfortunately, Cotton was convicted once again. His big break came in spring of 1995, when he was granted DNA testing in his case. The Burlington PD turned over all evidence which included the assailants semen for DNA testing, to the defense (Innocence Project, 2019). Samples from one victim did not match Cotton. The defense requested that they be sent to the State Bureau of Investigations DNA database. It came back that Bobby Poole’s DNA was a match. These results were reported in May of 1995. Following the results, the district attorney and defense motioned to dismiss all charges against Cotton. In June of 1995, Cotton was cleared of all charges and released.
Life After Exoneration:
After being released, Cotton was officially pardoned in July of 1995.
As far as compensation, Cotton was initially going to receive $5,000 for each year he spent in prison. However, Cotton had friends and family, including Jennifer Thompson, write letters on his behalf. Due to this, the state of North Carolina offered Cotton $10,000 for each year spent in prison, totaling to $110,000. Cotton used the money to purchase land for his new family (Innocence Project, 2019).
Current North Carolina Compensation Statue: Industrial commission awards $50,000 for each year spent, plus training, and college tuition; up to a max of $750,000; only for years spent for crime they are pardoned for (Welty, 2009).
Ronald and Jennifer Today
After finally meeting and making amends with each other, Ronald and Jennifer became friends and grew a bond that many of us would not understand. Friends who love each other, despite a traumatic situation being the reason for it. They are activist in their own right who travel together, do interviews to bring awareness to their situation and the issues within the system. Specifically they are working towards reforms regarding eyewitness identifications, as well as the death penalty. They have seen changes happening, specifically in North Carolina and they are continuing on this journey today (Thompson-Canino et. al, 2009).
References:
Afterinnocenceproject. (2009, March 21). [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/afterinnocenceproject/3384837577
The Burlington School. [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.theburlingtonschool.org/apps/news/article/562828
Innocence Project. (2019). Ronald Cotton. Retrieved from https://www.innocenceproject.org/cases/ronald-cotton/
Irazola, S., Williamson, E., Stricker, J., & Niedzwiecki, E. (2014). Addressing the impact of wrongful convictions on crime victims. NIJ Journal, 274. Retrieved from https://nij.gov/journals/274/pages/victim-impact-wrongful-convictions.aspx
Jost, K. (2011, October 14). Retrieved from https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2011101400
Thompson-Canino, J., Cotton, R., & Torneo, E. (n.d.). Case File. Picking Cotton: A Memoir by Jennifer Thompson & Ronald Cotton with Erin Torneo. Retrieved from https://www.pickingcottonbook.com/case-file
Thompson-Cannino, J., Cotton, R., & Torneo, E. (2009). Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
Welty, J. (2009, October 05). Compensation for the wrongly convicted. Retrieved from https://nccriminallaw.sog.unc.edu/compensation-for-the-wrongly-convicted/
[Photograph]. (2015). Retrieved from https://edu.glogster.com/glog/picking-cotton-luke-brodeur/26ob3v8tnd4
Picking Cotton 