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I Sent the Wrong Man to Jail: Why Governor Schwarzenegger Should Sign SB 756

By Jennifer Thompson-Cannino

March of 1995 began like any other month for me. The days were filled with chasing soon to be five year-old triplets, washing hundreds of pounds of laundry, kissing skinned knees and picking up toys, until the phone rang. Captain Mike Gauldin, the detective who worked my case after a man broke into my apartment when I was a twenty-two year-old college student and raped me at knifepoint in Burlington, N.C. wanted to come see me with Rob Johnson, then the assistant D.A. of Alamance County.

They arrived before lunch and we sat on the deck enjoying the spring sunshine. We talked about the weather, the kids, current events, and then quickly the topic changed. Ronald Cotton, the man sent away for life for attacking me, wanted a DNA test. They needed new blood drawn because my sample from the eleven year-old rape kit had deteriorated.

I had already sat through two trials and I was furious, but I didn't hesitate. "Let's go to the lab right now," I responded. Within hours Mike Gauldin and Rob Johnson were headed to the SBI labs with my vial of blood. I knew the tests would show what I had known all along: that Ronald Cotton was a monster. It was Ronald Cotton who threatened to kill me, who had chased me through the rain that night while I fled for my life. And it was Ronald Cotton who I saw every night in my nightmares, who I prayed God would have killed, and who I hated each and every day of the last eleven years.

But when Mike Gauldin and Rob Johnson stood in my kitchen in June of 1995, they told me we were wrong. It was not Ronald's DNA found in the rape kit, in fact, it was a man named Bobby Poole, a serial rapist who had attacked and raped over a half dozen other women that summer of 1984.

With the delivery of the DNA results came an overwhelming shame and guilt. My mind began to question everything I had believed in. I pulled away from the world as I knew it; I had no answers. Over four thousand days of a man's life were gone and nothing I could do would ever change that. Eleven birthdays, eleven Christmas mornings—gone. I placed the burden on my shoulders and began the slow process of moving through my days.

By the spring of 1997, the psychological toll forced me to act. In a small church no more then a few miles from where I had been brutally raped, I met Ronald and struggled for words I could say to him. How completely inadequate "I'm sorry" seemed. As Ronald and his new wife, Robbin, came into the room I began to cry and shake. "Ronald, if I spent the rest of my life telling you how sorry I am it wouldn't be enough," I said. Ronald immediately took my hands and replied, "I forgive you. I want you to be happy and live a good life. Don't look over your shoulders thinking I will be there because I won't."

For the first time, I looked into Ronald Cotton's eyes and saw a compassionate man who gave me a gift of healing by forgiving me. I also saw a victim of a flawed system. If California's Senate Bill 756 can help fix that system by putting better practices and procedures into place for eyewitness identification, we reduce the risk of wrongful convictions and mistakes like the one I made. A mistake I never saw coming.

Jennifer Thompson-Cannino lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. She is currently working on PICKING COTTON with Ronald Cotton and writer Erin Torneo. It will be published by St. Martin's Press in 2008.

Posted on September 28, 2007

Comments

Wow is all I can say. There is damage done to not only the wrongly accused, but the victim also. I can't imagine the feeling of being responsible for sending the wrong person to prison. My heart goes out to both sides. This kind of thing happens all the time. What if there is no DNA? Then what? No chance to right the wrong. All these reform bills need to be signed. SIGN THE BILLS MR. GOVERNOR.

Posted by: Morris1 at September 28, 2007 08:36 AM

this is sad but do you no its the laws and the people in the courts that done this.. IF THEY CAN SEND SAME ONE OR ANY ONE TO PRISON IT LOOKS SO GOOD ON THERE JOB AND TO GET UP ON THAT LADDER FOR A BETTER JOB

Posted by: delang at September 28, 2007 10:06 AM

I commend this woman for admitting she was wrong and doing something about it. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and take responsibility for their actions. The district attorneys, judges, and police should take lessons from her and start being responsible for what they do to other human beings. This attitude of convict at all costs guilty or not is ridicules.
These bills are for the public’s protection. They are desperately needed from an out of control law enforcement community who feel if an individual is not their idea “normal” or acceptable behavior then you are an expendable human.
I would hope the governor would sign bills that will protect the citizens of California’s from being unfairly persecuted by our corrupted law enforcement community. I hope the governor has the best interest of California citizens when he makes his decision to sign these bills.

Posted by: Gentle_Warrior at September 28, 2007 07:57 PM

That happened to my brother, but he killed himself when he got out. The DNA test cleared him but society would not. No where to live, no money, no job, very sick and insane homeless system. I could not help him because he never came home after he left. Even the guard at the prison said "you'll be back, they all come back"; and he was innocent! He never even had a parking ticket! People wake up!

Posted by: Augustine at September 28, 2007 09:08 PM

Sad and tragic realities. This bill and the others on our Governors desk need to be signed so that these stories don't get repeated. Agustine, the loss of your brother is a loss for everyone and is tragic proof that our current practices are inhumane and barbaric.

Posted by: Sue Killian at September 28, 2007 10:16 PM

Assemblyman Spitzer's speech is the epitome of what's wrong in Sacramento.

Spitzer's talk reflects an unthinking trust in government power and a stunning lack of concern about common government abuses, excesses and mistakes. Spitzer acts mainly as the spokesman for an interest group (the law-enforcement unions) rather than as a defender of the Constitution or the people.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/columns/article_1854693.php

Posted by: Shaw at October 2, 2007 05:12 PM

There are many more stories of calif justice nightmares. I have been trying to get a new trial for 5 years. I was wrongly convicted by lapd. Its easy to be convicted but hard to undo a wrongful conviction.

Posted by: don at November 11, 2007 08:02 AM

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