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Episode
8 min
Lissin
· Jun 9, 2026
Unjust Verdicts Unveiled
Unraveled: Inside the Stories of the Wrongfully Convicted
Journey through gripping weekly accounts of injustice, hope, and the fight to set the innocent free.
Unraveled: Inside the Stories of the Wrongfully Convicted
Lissin
0:00
-7:39
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About this episode
Journey through gripping weekly accounts of injustice, hope, and the fight to set the innocent free.
0:00
Ronald Cotton was sentenced to life plus fifty-four years for a crime he did not commit.
0:13
Last week, we heard firsthand accounts from inside the relentless pursuit of justice.
0:27
Today, we witness how that fight can unite the victim and the wrongly accused in the most unexpected way.
0:44
The courtroom, January 1985.
0:48
Jennifer Thompson is on the stand.
0:53
She’s just survived a brutal assault in her own apartment.
1:03
Now, she has to face him.
1:06
She looks at the man at the defendant's table.
1:14
She points.
1:16
Ronald Cotton said later he knew, in that exact moment, he was a goner.
1:27
Her certainty was absolute.
1:31
It was convincing.
1:34
And it was completely wrong.
1:38
The police had shown her a photo lineup a few days after the attack.
1:49
She hesitated between two pictures.
1:55
They told her to take her time, that she was doing great.
2:04
She chose Ronald Cotton.
2:07
At a physical lineup, she chose him again.
2:14
Psychologists now know that each time you repeat a choice, your brain rewrites the memory, making you more certain.
2:32
At the trial, Ronald’s alibi from his family didn't matter.
2:42
The fact that a second victim of the same attacker failed to identify him… was evidence the jury never heard.
2:59
What mattered was Jennifer, on the stand, looking at the jury and saying with total conviction: that’s the man.
3:16
He was convicted.
3:19
Sentenced to life.
3:22
He appealed.
3:24
Two years later, a second trial.
3:29
By then, an inmate in a nearby prison had confessed to the crime.
3:39
A judge refused to let the jury hear about it.
3:47
So Ronald Cotton was convicted again.
3:52
Ten years.
3:54
Ten years he sat in a cell, writing letters, filing appeals, telling anyone who would listen that he was innocent.
4:12
He said, "deep down inside I knew I needed to continue to be strong and survive that ordeal.
4:27
Because I was never giving up." And then, science caught up to the justice system.
4:40
DNA testing.
4:41
It was a new technology, a long shot.
4:47
But his lawyers fought for it.
4:52
They got a judge to agree to test the biological evidence from Jennifer’s rape kit.
5:05
The results came back.
5:09
The DNA wasn't Ronald Cotton's.
5:14
But it wasn't just a negative match.
5:19
It was a positive one… for another man.
5:26
A man named Bobby Poole.
5:29
The very same inmate who had confessed to the crime, all those years ago.
5:41
On June thirtieth, 1995, Ronald Cotton walked out of prison a free man.
5:52
But the story isn’t just about his freedom.
5:59
It’s about Jennifer’s.
6:02
She described realizing her mistake as a “nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.” How could she have been so sure?
6:20
How could she have cost an innocent man a decade of his life?
6:29
She reached out to him.
6:33
She needed to apologize.
6:37
He needed to forgive.
6:40
They met.
6:42
They talked.
6:44
And together, they chose to turn their shared trauma into a mission.
6:54
They co-authored a book, Picking Cotton, and began speaking out together against the dangers of eyewitness testimony—the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions in America.
7:23
The memory that once locked him in a cell became the key to unlocking the truth for countless others.
