Ronald Cotton Rape

Ron’s old boss from Somer’s Seafood, Mr. Byrum, who was a Native American, said that he saw Ronald wearing white gloves when he rode his bike. Ronald did wear white gloves, but he cut off the tops of them. Ray then said that Ronald was always messing with the waitresses by touching them, but Ronald said he Ray always thought he was messing with the waitresses. He then went onto say that Ron bothered an eighteen year old and a forty-seven year old. Ray then said that the waitresses were white. After three and a half years, Ronald found out that Mary Reynolds, the other victim, picked him as her attacker. She claimed that she knew it was him all along, but was too afraid to identify him. He was then charged with her rape. He told his cellmate, Fearnow, about the lineup and he told it to Mr. Moseley, his defense attorney. Fearnow was trying to make a deal for himself to get Ronald into even more trouble.

Ronald Cotton also had quite a bit of “real” or non-verbal evidence against him.

The suspect of the two rapes was known to smoke cigarettes, wear white gloves, ride a bike, use a knife, wear shoes that had rubber soles, and have a flashlight. When Ronald Cotton went into the police station to start things out, they took the knife that he always carried out from his front right pocket. Once Detective Gauldin started to question him, Ron told Gauldin that he smoked Newports, which is a type of cigarette. After he was questioned multiple times, they showed him a pair of black canvas World Cup shoes. He said that his shoes insoles were falling apart, but they weren’t that beaten up when the police showed them to him. They then showed him a piece of material that came from his shoe, which was left in Jennifer Thompson’s apartment. After that, they then showed him a red flashlight and accused him of taking batteries from Mary’s house, the other rape

victim.
There was very little circumstantial or indirect evidence. The police officer’s already decided what his motive was: he liked white women. The alibi that Ron gave to the police was wrong because he mixed up his weekends. His defense attorney told him that it was not going to look good because it would look like he lied. Another factor is his appearance. When people are in jail, they are not given the proper things to take care of themselves. The jail issued him a navy blue jumpsuit. When he went to court, this already made him look guilty because he already looked like a prisoner. Plus, if he had shackles or handcuffs on him, it makes him look even worse.
The ninth factor that convicted Ronald was the fact that the judge denied every single thing that the defense attorneys asked for. When Ronald went back into prison during the new trial, he found out that another prisoner, by the name Dennis Bass, was told by Poole that he committed the crimes. His lawyers made a motion for the court to reopen the evidence or to declare a mistrial, but the judge denied the motions and submitted all the evidence to the jury, none of which mentioned Poole. Ron’s attorney asked the judge if the jurors could know about the other victim, who did not pick Ronald out of the lineup, but the judge said no. He then asked to put a memory expert in front of the jury, to testify about how you think you can see something, and be sure it is right, but in actuality, it is wrong. Again, the judge said no.
Ronald then had two lawyers, Dan Monroe and Phil Moseley. They tried to make sure the two women who were raped were not in the courtroom at the same time, but the judge denied it. Ronald thought that Mary would match her story up with Jennifer’s if she testified. Then when the jury came in, there were 4 black people. The judge dismissed one of them, and Mr. Turner, the new ADA who was black, dismissed the other three. Ronald was scared about Turner because he was going to be worse than any white boss. His two lawyers tried to get a mistrial since Cotton’s right to a fair and impartial jury had been violated by the prosecutor’s use of his peremptory challenges to systematically exclude blacks from the jury. The fourth juror that was dismissed by the judge, was acquainted with Mr. Turner’s family. Turner’s response was that 2 of the black jurors knew his family, and the other 2 knew Cotton’s family. Cotton indirectly stated there were more black people in the town of Burlington that could have been jurors. The judge agreed to put the net result down that the jury was all white, plus the two alternatives, but he denied the motion.