>> the innocence project, a national litigation and public policy organization, dedicated to exonerating a wrongfully convicted people through d.n.a. testing. was able to use d.n.a. evidence to overturn the rape conviction of a misidentified man. the resulting book, "picking cotton," recounts the legal struggle to free an innocent man

and the friendship that developed between a rape victim and the man she incorrectly identified who was imprisoned for 10 years. the event, hosted by the south texas law school in houston is a little over an hour. this program contains language that some find objectionable. >> you know, it's often said, i think, by those of us who are doing this work, which is about everybody here, that -- and i think we take consolation in the idea that we're making some history happen as we do it. but the truth is, it's hard to get your head around that sometimes. you don't realize, i mean, you do a lot of work on a case and maybe it happens and maybe it doesn't and maybe even when it does, it seems like it was just for one individual, seems like it was just for that one time. that's great enough, but sometimes we need reminders that the work that we do lights a

torch up for people that come next. i've had a real personal experience with that recently, it was my privilege to represent the family of a young man named tim cole, who as many of you know, we posthumously exonerated in a texas court about a month ago. thank you. but there's a story behind that, because one of the most important features in that case an one of the biggest things that made that case happen was the willingness of the original victim in that case to come forward and work with our project and it really changed the whole character of it, and made us realize what we were doing is important, but none of that would have ever happened, had it not been for an example that had been made years before, a light that had-lit -- that had-bit up that showed the way forward for us and that light was lit by our next speaker, and our next next speaker. these folks together early on

proved, i think, for all, the true damage done by reckless prosecutorial misconduct, by a government bent on conviction at all costs and they have showed the rest of us, not only what we can do to change that, not only how horrible the kinds of government misconduct that we address really are, but more important, a way forward in redressing that and dealing with it, so with that said, i want to introduce jennifer thompson, and she in turn will lead the speech made by -- [inaudible] and what we want to do is just open this up for questions later on. if you guys would hold off on that. i know you're a very confident speaker, both of you guys are -- well, ok, you'll be able to manage the process, but i want to make sure we have time left over for questions and answers, so with that said, jennifer, come on up.

[applause] >> thank you everybody. i don't know how competent i am, but i can speak, so i think it's really interesting and fortuitous that i am back in houston, texas, because it was nine years ago this coming june that i found myself at a press conference on behalf of a death row inmate by the game of georgia graham. i was asked to come to -- name of gary graham. i was asked to come to houston to tell my story, to lend a face, some credence to what happens when mistakes were made and how these mistakes are made and then what is the damage and the fallout from it and i came down here very nervous, not knowing what in the world i was going to say and how i was going to say it, and who wanted to hear me anyway. but it did lead to what i have been trying to do for the last nine years. and that is to go across the country and up into the far reaches of canada to tell my

story. my story, which started 25 years ago in july of 1984 as a young college student, who was 22, elan college in burlington, north carolina. and as most of you and most of the exonrees in here, you had your life figured out, you had goals, you knew what you wanted to do with your life and i had decided i wanted to graduate top of my class with a straight a, 4.0 gpa. that was my plan. i wanted to get married to the guy i was dating. we had been talking about it and planning it, that was my goal, that was my plan. i lived alone in my apartment, worked two jobs and worked really hard and that was my goal and that was my plan, and like the exonrees in here, one day your life is just derailed. it's like a train wreck. you're going in one direction,

and something happens, something -- some force takes place, and your life is not what you had planned it to be and that happened for me in the early morning hours of july 29th, as i was sleeping in my bed. i felt a presence in my bedroom that morning, and i was on the edge of sleep and being awake, and felt that there was someone in my room and thought i heard someone moving around and actually felt something brush up against my arm, and as i turned to the left side of my bed, i noticed there was a head, someone's head crouched beside my mattress. at that moment, i yelled, i said who is it, who's there, and at that point, someone jumped on my bed, put a knife to my throat and as i screamed, he muffled my mouth with a gloved hand. now, again, i say that i was a 4.0gpa student. studying was really very key to

me. i knew how to pay attention to details, i knew how to look and be very thoughtful and as i struggled to figure out if i was going to live or die, and these moments went very quickly in my mind, i realized that i was u unarmed, i realized that i was a small woman and i probably was not going to be able to physically defend myself and therefore i made the decision that night that i would try to stay very focused and very calm and hope that somehow i survived. throughout the rape, i paid attention to his face. i knew what the police were going to ask me. should i live. they were going to ask me how tall this man was, how much did he weigh. about how old was he, jennifer. did you get any identifying features, did he any tatoos or scars, maybe a piercing, something, anything, that could

lead them to apprehending this monster and taking him off the streets. so i did. i paid very close attention that night, as he raped me. he began to tell me certain things like i know you can't see me because you're not wearing your glasses. i know you're from that town where they burn witches and he got winston-salem and salem, massachusetts, confused. it had been clear to me that he had been in my apartment for quite some time. he knew me, he invaded my privacy, my home and now he was invading my body and to say that i hated this man would be a complete under statement. if i had had a weapon, i would have killed him. and i would have killed him with smile on my face that night. during the rape, at one point he tried to kiss me and i can remember being so disgusted and i turned my head to the side, and he said, relax, i'm not going to hurt you.

my father often says that there is no such thing as luck, that luck is when preparation meets opportunity and for some reason when he said that to me, i knew that that was my opportunity. i had to get him off of me. and i said, i'm really afraid of knives, if you'll get off of me and take the knife and walk down the front of my apartment and drop the knife on my car, i'll let you come back in. and he believed me. i wrapped a blanket around myself because i knew that it would be important for me to stand very close to him to figure out how tall he was in comparison to my small 5'1" frame. i needed to know where his hands hit his lips, perhaps his feet were splayed a certain way. what kind of shoes was he wearing, how much did he weigh? important detaste. i needed to know. he didn't go down to my car. he simply walked to my front

door, pretended to drop the knife out and came back in and grabbed my arms and said let's go and i said, i have to go to the bathroom. because i knew i couldn't go back in that room. i knew that he would have to kill me first. i went into the bathroom and as i went into the bathroom, i remember turning a light on and taking a look at him just briefly, momentary glimpse. this would be important later on. i knew that. i knew that. and he quickly said, turn the light off and as i went into the bathroom, i began to pray, i said god, i don't know how to get out of this, i'm not sure if i even can. and then i remembered he had told me he had come through my back door. i needed to get to the back door. i knew his way in would be my way out. as i went out of the bathroom, again he said let's go. i said i'm really thirsty. can i make a drink of water for myself and he said yeah and make me one too and we'll have a party.

i went into the kit ken and i quickly turned the light on. again, light became my friend that night. light would keep him away from me. it would give me that distance, that space. maybe two seconds, maybe 15 feet, but it might just be enough that i could run. and as i began to make noise in the kit ken with water and ice and drawers and cabinets, i prayed and i ran, and he quickly came after me. i saw him behind me. it had started to rain now. i didn't know where i was going. i had no plan. i was simply wrapped in a blanket running for my life. i knew that if he caught me, i was dead. i knew that. i ran to the light. the light was my friend. i ran to a car port. i had no idea who lived there. i just prayed that someone was home. and as i went to the door and i began to bang and make noise, the man came around the corner,

the father of the house, and he looked at me and i said please, let me in, i've just been raped, and he's after me. and he did what i think i would have done, which is stand there and scream. and fortunately, his wife came around the corner, and she was a professor at the college. she had seen me, for a year and a half, walking back and forth to school, and she said, my god, it's a student at the college, let her in and as i opened the door and i walked in, i fainted. the next thing i knew, they had called 911. i could hear the police. they had dogs tried to chase him, but it was raining, they lost his scent rather quickly. and they asked me, did you get a good look at the man who did this to you and i said yes, i did. i did. 21, 22, 23 years old. young, african-american man, light skinned, about 6 feet tall. maybe ran 175, 180 pounds. he was wearing a navy blue shirt

with white stripes on the sleeves, he had on khaki pants and boat shoes. i knew what he looked like. i went to the hospital. my body had now become evidence. as they began to do the rape kit, it was a horror. as they began to collect biological evidence from my body. as i laid in the hospital room, i heard a woman crying. she wasn't far from where i was, but i recognized her cry. it was a deep gutterral death cry and i remember asking the detective, the woman that's crying, what happened to her, and he said, she's just been raped. we think it's the same man who just raped you. i couldn't believe it. i was stunned. i mean, hate was palatable. i could taste it.

this monster had broken into our lives and within an hour, had destroyed two women and i wanted him caught, i wanted him apprehended. i have wanted him to die. i went to the police station within hours and i began to give the description again and they asked me, can you do a composite sketch, do you think you could do that and i said yes, i do. i sat with the police, and we began to put together the face of the man who had raped me. i had to pick out his eyes. and his eyebrows. the nose. the bridge of his nose. the eyelashes. the lips. the cheeks. the chin. the ears. the hair. the color. everything. and you're looking through an array of eyes that you get to choose from and an array of lips that you get to choose from and slowly, slowly i was able to put

together what this monster looked like. and they asked me, does this look like the man who raped you and i said yes, it does, and it ran in the newspaper. within days, phone calls came flooding into the police department, but one phone call was particularly important. it was someone saying that the composite sketch looked like a man that she knew. a man by the name of ronald cotton. ronald cotton had had some brushes with the law, he wasn't a perfect person. he had had a record. but the most important piece came in when she said, and i think i saw him driving around the neighborhood of brookwood garden condominiums on a bicycle in the early morning hours of july 29 wearing a navy blue shirt, white stripes, with dark khaki pants, and i think white knit gloves. that was the rapist. on august 1, i was asked to do a photo lineup.

i was given instructions. take your time, jennifer. i'm going to show you an array of six photographs. don't feel compelled to choose anyone. the suspect may or may not be in here and again, i was a student. i was a 4.0 student. i knew how to take a test, find the right answer. it was just a matter of looking, and there he was. and i picked up the photograph and i said, this is him. are you sure? i'm positive. good job, jennifer. days went by, on august 8, i was asked to do a physical lineup. the only thing i knew about physical lineups, what i had seen in television on movie, you walk into a room, there's the one-way mirror. the bad guy is over here, you can't see them but they can see you. that was not it at all. we walked into an abandoned school as the police department was being refurbished and nothing was between me and the seven men and the physical

lineup but a table. they could see me. i had to get this right. because if i got it wrong, he would go free. and he would kill me. and i had to find him. and there he was, number five. and i wrote it on a piece of paper and i gave it to the detective. and they said good job, jennifer. that's the guy you picked out of the photo lineup. and i knew it. i knew i had passed. i was a good witness. i had gotten it right. ronald cotton would stand trial. he would stand trial for what he did to me. the second victim had not been able to make an identification. she had fought him. she had screamed. he had bitten her, he had slapped her, he had tried to smother her. i had to carry this for her. i had to. and not just for me, but for my other woman who had never been able to put her rapist behind

bars, this was porn important. -- >> this was important. in january of 1985, state versus cotton went to trial. two weeks of my life, two weeks i sat in that courtroom and as i what happened him at the defense table and his face never showed emotion, it was placid, and it was because he didn't have a conscience. i knew that. i could look at him, i could tell. i hated him two days i had to testify about what he had done to me, i had to describe every disgusting detail as my parents listened and cried. i mean, he testified, he said, yeah, i was asleep on the couch, his mother said yeah, he was asleep on the couch, sister said yes, he was asleep on the couch. but we all knew it was a lie. it was a lie. we knew where he was. of a two weeks, the jury --

after two weeks, the jury took 45 minutes, ronald cotton was found guilty, first degree rape, first degree sexual offense, first degree breaking and entering and ronald cotton received life and 54 years. it was a joyful day. i mean, it was victory. the judicial system worked. ronald cotton was going to pay. would never walk out a free man. we went back to the district attorney office and we had champagne and we toasted the system, because i am the victim and i was in pain and ronald cotton deserved to rot in prison and die there. life went on. i graduated. i didn't graduate with a 4.0, but i graduated. i didn't marry my boyfriend, we couldn't weather the storm. i did marry another man that i met later that spring. i moved, i got a job, was

working in the bank, and in 1987, the appellate court overturned the decision. you see, they thought that the appellate court should know that the second victim had not been able to make an identification and perhaps if the second victim hadn't made an identification, then the first victim could have been mistaken and it's possible, but we knew that was wrong. and then they also had this like other person, bobby pool, who apparently had confessed to a cellmate that he had done the crime ronald cotton was in prison for, but we also know that they lie, so i wasn't concerned at all. 1987, we went back to court. this time we tried the case for two rapes because the second victim now said aha, i remember now. i remember. it was ronald cotton. i will testify to that. under voir dire, they brought this bobby pool into the courtroom. and of course, he said no, man,

i never said anything like that hand they asked me, do you recognize the person in this courtroom that raped you, jennifer? i said yes, he's sitting at the defense table over there. are you pointing to ronald cotton. i'm pointing to ronald cotton. you don't recognize this man over here. no, sir, never seen him in my life. two weeks later, ronald cotton was found guilty of two first degree sex offenses, two breaking and entering. he received happen life sentence and 35 years and it was reason for champagne. again, ronald cotton would never be free. ronald cotton would never marry, never be a father, never hug his mother, every thanksgiving, every christmas would be spent with him locked up. and i prayed. i used to pray every night, dear god, god bless my children, my mom, my dad and would you please have ronald cotton killed in prison today?

that was my prayer. i hated him. he was a monster. he destroyed my life. and then in 1995, this thing called d.n.a. rolls around. and the assistant district attorney and the investigating officer, who is now captain of the police came to my house and said jennifer, we've got this little thing called d.n.a. ronald cotton would like a d.n.a. test run. now you don't have to agree to it, but the court might order it and your blood sample has disintegrated and we're going to need another blood sample. i have said listen, i'm a mother now, i had 5-year-old tripletts, i was busy. i didn't want to go back to court. couldn't go back to court. how dare he invade my life again. run that d.n.a. test, because i know what it's going to show. it's going to show what i've all known all along, it was ronald cotton. run it. they ran it.

three months later they stood in my house, in my kitchen and they said jennifer, it's not ronald's d.n.a. it's bobby pool. and people like to ask me, what did you feel like? what did you do? what did you say? well, what do you do and what do you say? i cried. i suffocated on guilt. i was debilitated with shame. i never felt shame and guilt from being a rape victim, but 11 years of a man's life were gone and i couldn't give them back. and no amount of apologies and no amount of i'm sorries, no amount of money, was going to give him a day back. and i didn't know what to do and i was afraid. i was afraid. i was afraid what he would say to me, what would he do do to me, would he hurt my children,

would he come after me? would he seek revenge? would he? i would. i mean, a third of my life would be gone. i'd be angry. i'd want to hurt you. so i hid. and i didn't do anything and i didn't say anything and i asked people, what should i do? maybe i should call ronald on the phone and apologize. maybe i should write him a letter and say i'm sorry. no, don't do that. ronald had had a past. he wasn't a good person. and he got three meals a day. and he got to play basketball. and you know, you probably gave him 11 years longer than he would have had anyway. so you know, don't worry about it. and i was like, ok. that didn't work. it didn't work. i was dying.

i was dying. i mean, the days were ok because i would be busy with my children, but the night when it got really, really quiet, i was dying. in 1997, i asked to meet with ronald. i didn't know what i was going to say. i didn't even know what i was going to call him. i didn't know if i was going to call him ronald or mr. cotton or mr. ronald cotton. i have just don't know. so i prayed. i sat in a pastor study in a church not far from where i had been raped and i waited for this man and i saw a truck pull up. and i saw this very tall man come out of a truck and stand behind this really tiny woman, his wife, and i thought, oh my god, he's too tall. oh my god, how did i do that? how did i make that mistake? where had my memory failed me? when ronald came to the door and he stood in front of me, i couldn't physically move, and i

started to cry and i said, ronald, if i spent every second of every minute of every hour of every day telling you how sorry i am, for what happened to you, it wouldn't come close to how i feel in my heart. can you ever forgive me? and ronald with true grace and mercy, took my hands and said, i forgive you. i forgave you a long time ago. i'm not angry at you. i want you to be happy. i want to be happy. i want you to live a good life and i want to live a good life and don't look over your shoulders thinking i'm going to hurt you. i won't be there. we spent the next two hours sharing about what had happened to us, two victims caught up in a system that often fails, not just the wrongfully convicted and not just the victim, but their families, and a community

who's lulled into a sense of safety that the right guy is in prison and aren't we safer now? and we share these feelings and at the end of that two hours, we ended up in each other's arms. how strange. how bizarre. ronald and i had been walking a journey for the last 12 years. a journey of faith, a journey of friendship, a journey of forgiveness. which brought me to texas in june of 2000. rob warden was there to receive me and he said, jennifer, you need to stand up and tell these 12 exxonees who you are and why you're here and i said no, uh-uh. they're going to kill me. i know it. they're all heating steak. they've got steak knives and they might kill me. ron said, you can do this and i was like, man. herman at kins was there.

beautiful herman atkins, i remember, and i told them from the bottom of my heart, i'm so sorry for what has happened to you. no amount of sorries, and no amount of apologies can give you back your years. i'm sorry. and this beautiful man stood up, and he looked at me and he said, ms. thompson, i want you to know you're the first person whosever said you're sorry to me. i think i can start healing now. what they did for me that day was give me a voice. they blessed me with a voice, a place to stand, a place to make sense of what happened to ronald and myself. i'm so honored to be here. i just cannot tell you how honored i am to be amongst all of you, to be amongst the exxonees,