Tag Archives: testimony

The movie about child molesters that we watched in class reminded me off another documentary I watched about wrongly convicted. (its in two parts, part 1 and part 2)

In Law and Psychology class we were looking at the Cotton Case where young woman was raped by guy who broke into her apartment. She identified one person, who after years in prison was released when DNA identification linked rape case to other prisoner. The victim met with the man she mistakenly put into prison, he forgave her and understood how she was made to believe that he was the one who raped her. They wrote the book and toured together. The book and tour was about how police can manipulate victim’s judgment. It can be done through the way questions are stated, or potential offenders positioned in a line-up. In that case it was through how the picture of the same man was shown to the victim in different sets of pictures.

This case, as well as cases of child molesters that we watched in class, shows how different factors can tamper with witness’ memory.  Victims in both cases were in doubt throughout the case trial and were convinced or made to testify false by police. But the Cotton case has another analogy with what we discussed in class, because the convict was eventually released on the base of DNA evidences. We had some discussions in class and on blog about the harm of storing DNA information on people. I personally posted a blog last week that argues against State’s storing of DNA samples from people who commit misdemeanor. The Cotton case may serve as an example of how DNA information help to free innocent people  from jail. It serves as a good example of an opposite side of the argument about the use of DNA in justice.