Ronald Cotton Case Study Answers

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1. I believe that Ronald Cotton handled his extremely well. To be honest, I was surprised at how relaxed and calm he was in the video, because personally, if I had been convicted of a crime I did not commit, and lost 11 years of my life for it, it would be very hard to let that go. He handled his false conviction well because he maintained his innocence and diligently sought out every opportunity to clear his name. Had he not, he may still be in prison today. I give him even more credit for getting out of prison, and rebuilding his life after such an unfortunate series of events. The fact that he had been in trouble for similar crimes in the past does not make me feel any less sorry for him. Although Cotton had committed crimes in the past, he did not commit the crime that he was put away for. He was a free man when he…show more content…
According to Gary Wells, an expert in eyewitness testimony, “When the real perpetrator is not in the set, is none of them, witnesses have a very difficult time being able to recognize that.” In other words, when a set of suspects is presented to the victim, the victim has a hard time saying that it is none of the above, when in fact that is a strong possibility. Jennifer admits to this when she says, “When you’re sitting in front of a photo lineup, you just assume one of these guys is the suspect, it’s my job to find it.” Wells goes on to say that, “When the real guy isn’t there, witnesses tend to pick the guy that looks most like him.” This is exactly what happened to Ronald Cotton. Jennifer saw the man that most resembled her rapists, and so she picked him assuming that her rapist was one of the suspects on the police lineup. Similarly, under these conditions, most victims would have done what Jennifer did, assume that the criminal was one of the people on the lineup, and pick the one that most resembled the real criminal. What these victims fail to recognize is that there is a possibility that the perpetrator is not even in the

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