it's a cliche of courtroom dramas that moment when the eyewitness is asked do you see the person who committed the crime here in this courtroom before you well it happens in real courtrooms all the time and to jurors that point of the finger by a confident witness is about as damning as evidence can get but there is one type of evidence that's even more persuasive and that of course is DNA there have been two hundred thirty three people exonerated by DNA in this country and now a stunning pattern has emerged more than three-quarters of them was sent to prison at least in part because an eyewitness pointed a finger and eye witness who we now know was wrong it was hot and humid in Burlington North Carolina on the night of July 28 1984 Jennifer Thompson then a 22 year old college student had gone to bed early in her off-campus apartment as she slept a man shattered the light bulb near her back door cut her phone line and broke in I remember kind of waking up and turning my head to the side and saying who's there who is it and I saw the top of someone's head kind of sliding beside my mattress and I screamed and I felt blade go to my throat a knife a knife and he told me to shut up where he was going to kill me her first thought was to offer him anything she had to go away you can have my credit card you can have my wallet you can have anything and the apartment get in my car and he looked at me and said I don't want your money and I knew what was getting ready to happen she vowed to stay alert and study him so that if she lived she could help put him away forever what is his voice is he have an accent does he have a scar is there a tattoo he's raping you and you're studying his faith it was just trying to pay attention to a detail that if I survived and that was my plan I'd be able to help the police catch him after about half an hour Jennifer trick the rapists into letting her get up and fix him a drink and she ran out the back door he fled and raped a second woman half a mile away Detective Mike golden met Jennifer at the hospital the first comment I remember her making was that I'm gonna get this guy that did this to me she said I took the time to look at him I will be able to identify him if I'm given an opportunity detective gaulden worked with Jennifer to make a composite sketch poring over eyes noses ears lips trying to recreate the face she had seen that night the sketch went out and tips started coming in one of those tips was about a young man named Ronald cotton who worked at a restaurant near the scene of both rapes and had a record a guilty plea to Breaking and Entering and as a teenager to sexual assault three days after the rape Mike golden called Jennifer in to do a photo lineup he lay these six pictures down on the table said the perpetrator may or may not be one of them and told her to take her time does she say immediately that's him no she studied each photograph I can remember almost feeling like I was an SAT test you know we started narrowing down your choices you can discount a and B and I like multiple-choice exactly according to the police report Jennifer studied the pictures for five minutes she picked up Ron's photograph and said that's the man who raped me and you must have said are you sure and she said yes oh yes certainly Ronald cotton heard the news from his mother's boyfriend he told me sir Ron he said police are looking for you and I said for what he told me for rape my smack and commit such a crime I can't did you panic I didn't pan out trying to figure out you know why he comes in and gives me a very detailed account of where he was who he was with that night as it turns out that was a false alibi I realized later that I had got my weekends confused and so therefore I gave him the reason to think that I was lying that's for August 1st 1984 right you go in to clear yourself when did you actually leave I didn't he was locked up and days later put in a physical lineup I'm number 5 you scared I was very scared nervous I was so nervous I was trembling you know I felt my body just shaking they were asked to step forward speak and step back I can remember looking to the detective and saying it's between 4 & 5 gonna have them do it again and then she knew it was number 5 Ronald cotton did you feel absolutely certain absolutely certain did anybody say - good job well what was said to me afterwards was that's the same person who picked out the photo lineup so in my mind I thought bingo I did it right I did it right in a week long trial the jury heard about Ronald Cotton's faulty alibi his clothing that matched Jennifer's description and a piece of foam found on her floor that seemed to come from one of his shoes and most powerfully they heard from Jennifer when they asked you do you recognize the man who did this to you did you point to him as I was wrong Cahn she called my name pointer finger and I saw that's how it takes him like what did that feel like if I like someone pushing a knife through me it took the jury just 40 minutes the verdict guilty on all counts he was sentenced to life in 50 years and it was for me that moment that you know the justice system works because I am the victim and he's a horrible person and he will never ever be free again Ronald cotton was handcuffed shackled and taken to North Carolina's central prison he was 22 years old you notice they grow me not cry that's a lot you know I grab my pillow many times and hugged it wishing I was hugging my mom my dad sister brother I wish it didn't have to be this way he started working in the prison kitchen singing in the choir and writing letter after letter to his attorneys hoping to get a new trial then one day as he watched a new inmate being brought in he had a strange feeling that's excuse me I said I see you look for me I said why are you from he's on from barrels and ice I am too I said you kind of resemble the drawing of a suspect in a crime of which I'm falling for it what did you commit this crime and he told me no he did not wait a sec you saw him and thought of that composite drawing his name was Bobby Poole and he was in for rape he started working in the prison kitchen to the stewardess will calling me Pooh instead of cotton they were calling you by his name yeah in other words people were mistaken the two of you yes exactly then a fellow inmate told him that he'd heard Bobby Poole admit to raping Jennifer and the other woman that night Ronald cotton won a new trial and his lawyers called Bobby Poole to the stand with Jennifer sitting right there it was the moment Ronald cotton had been hoping for Bobby Poole is in the courtroom you look over there what happens inside you nothing nothing nothing as a matter of a the strongest motion I felt was anger at the defense because I thought how dare you how dare you question me how dare you try to paint me as someone who could possibly have forgotten what my rapist looked like I mean the one person you would never forget how dare you Ronald cotton was convicted again this time given two life sentences back in prison seven years later he and everyone else was riveted by a big news story the trial of OJ Simpson I would give my radio put me upload go outside sit in a corner and listen to the trial yeah he was intrigued by something he had never heard of DNA he wrote to his new attorney law professor rich rosin rosin warned him that there probably wasn't any evidence left to test and if there was DNA could cut both ways understand if the DNA comes back and shows that you did this crime whatever legal issues we have don't make any bit of difference you're going to spend the rest of your life in prison he warned you mm-hmm that if it comes up positive you're sunk tell him to put his foot down and go with it packed away on the shelves of the Burlington Police Department was 10-year old evidence from the two rapes that night inside one of the rape kits was a fragment of a single sperm with viable DNA it proved what Ronald cotton have been saying all along he was innocent and the rapist was Bobby Poole within days Ronald cotton was back in court you're walking out here today braving this time to be released so not only do you find out that Ron didn't do the crime you find out Bobby Poole did it was just utter shock really disbelief I mean by this time this is 11 years later and you know I know that I've been involved in a case the man has lost 11 years of his life and I just I was so sad for him and his family in the years since Ronald Cotton's conviction Jennifer had married and had children are you the one that tells her yes or reactional no I can't be true that's not possible you know I know Ronald cotton raped me the question in my mind it was like someone had just taken my life and like turned it upside down she cried oh she cried she broke down she took it all on herself you know the guilt you know I did this to that man shame shame terrible shame of suffocating debilitating shame but when she thought or dreamed about that night it was still Ronald Cotton's face she saw to get past it she asked if he would meet with her at a local church I remember him walking into the church and I physically could not stand up she was nervous scared I started to cry immediately and I looked at him and I said Ron if I spent every second of every minute every hour for the rest of my life telling you how sorry I am it wouldn't come close to how my heart feels I'm so sorry and Ronald just leaned down he took my hand oh gosh and he looked at me he said I forgive you I told her I said I forgive you I want you to look over your shoulder that I just want us to be happy and move on in life the minute he forgave me it's like my heart physically started to heal and I thought this is what grace and mercy is all about this is what they teach you in church that none of us ever get and here was this man that I had hated with I mean I used to pray every day of my life during those 11 years that he would die that he would be raped in prison and someone would kill him in prison that was my prayer to God and here was this man who with grace and mercy just forgave me that is overwhelming it's overwhelming how wrong I was and how good he is how is it that Jennifer could have studied her rapist so carefully and still made this mistake and how could she have failed to recognize Bobby Poole the actual rapist when he sat right in front of her in the courtroom three years later that part of the story when we come