Ronald Cotton
In 1984, Jennifer Thompson was raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her apartment while she was sleeping. She escaped, and in the course of reporting the crime, eventually positively identified Ronald Cotton as her rapist in a photo array and subsequent physical lineup. There was only one problem: Ronald Cotton was innocent of the crime. This is the story told by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton in Picking Cotton (St. Martin’s Press; March, 2009) – the remarkable true story of an unlikely friendship forged between a woman and the innocent man she sent to prison. Ronald Cotton married in 1996 and had a daughter in 1998. He and his family live in Mebane, North Carolina.
