A victim of rape who misidentififed her assailant in a photospread and, again, in a physical line up.


Wrongly convicted of the Thompson rape and of another rape at a second trial. Cotton's case was one of the first in which DNA evidence was used not only to overturn his conviction, but also to implicate the real criminal.


Detective in the Cotton case and an 18-year veteran of the Burlington, North Carolina Police Department.


Forensic psychologist who specializes on memory. She has testified in criminal cases on the fallibility of eyewitness testimony and is the author of several books on eyewitness identification and memory.


Court-appointed defense attorney for Ronald Cotton.


DNA expert and co-founder with Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cordozo School of Law.


Law professor at the University of North Carolina who was unimpressed with the case against Cotton and filed a motion to have Cotton's DNA tested. The test positively excluded Cotton as the perpretrator of the rape.


DNA expert and one of the defense lawyers in the O.J. Simpson case. He is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cordozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and co-founder of the school's Innocence Project.

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