SOME Dangerous White Women: Lies Send Black men to Jail

[Tropicana]

Notice me nevah did say mzungu but this is a follow up to blugiant's thread.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Disclaimer: </span>This thread is not in any way intended to imply that all or even most White women are dangerous. There are dangerous women in all races. This thread is an exploration of some of the dynamics of race and sex that come into play FAR too often in the criminal justice system.

<span style="font-weight: bold">She sent the Wrong Person to Jail </span>

This story is in the current issue of People magazine as well. It has also been featured on PBS's Frontline and on The Today Show.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-weight: bold">COTTON: </span><span style="font-style: italic">I observed it carefully, and I knew that there was no resemblance of that composite sketch of me other than maybe the nose. I mean the guy had ears poke out at the top, mustache, dark rings around the eye, very short hair. I knew it wasn't me. I think [I] cut the picture out the newspaper and kept it. </span> </div></div>


From PBS: Frontline

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-weight: bold">Factual background:</span> In two separate incidents in July 1984, an assailant broke into an apartment, severed phone wires, sexually assaulted a woman, and searched through her belongings, taking money and other items.

<span style="font-weight: bold">On August 1, 1984, Ronald Cotton was arrested for the rapes. In January 1985, Cotton was convicted by a jury of one count of rape and one count of burglary. In a second trial, in November 1987, Cotton was convicted of both rapes and two counts of burglary. An Alamance County Superior Court sentenced Cotton to life plus 54 years. </span>
</div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
<span style="font-weight: bold">Prosecutor's evidence at trial:</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt"><span style="font-weight: bold">Cotton's alibi was supported by family members. The jury was not allowed to hear evidence that the second victim failed to pick Cotton out of either a photo array or a police lineup.</span></span>

The prosecution based its case on several points:

· A photo identification was made by one of the victims.

· A police lineup identification was made by one of the victims.

· A flashlight in Cotton's home resembled the one used by the assailant.

· Rubber from Cotton's tennis shoe was consistent with rubber found at one of the crime scenes. </div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <span style="font-weight: bold">Postconviction challenges:</span> Cotton's attorney filed an appeal. The North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the conviction because the second victim had picked another man out of the lineup and the trial court did not allow this evidence to be heard by the jury. </div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 14pt">In November 1987 Cotton was retried, this time for both rapes. The second victim had decided that Cotton was the assailant. Before the second trial, a man in prison, who had been convicted for crimes similar to these assaults, stated to another inmate that he had committed Cotton's crimes. The superior court judge refused to allow this information into evidence</span></span>, and Cotton was convicted of both rapes and sentenced to life. </div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> The next year Cotton's appellate defender filed a brief that did not argue the failure to admit the second suspect's confession. The conviction was affirmed. In 1994 two new lawyers, at the request of the chief appellate defender, took over Cotton's defense. They filed a motion for appropriate relief on the grounds of inadequate appeal counsel. They also filed a motion for DNA testing that was granted in October 1994. In the spring of 1995, the Burlington Police Department turned over all evidence that contained the assailant's semen for DNA testing. </div></div>

<span style="font-weight: bold">Thank God fi DNA.</span>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
<span style="font-weight: bold">DNA results: </span>The samples from one victim were too deteriorated to be conclusive, but <span style="font-weight: bold">the samples from the other victim's vaginal swab and underwear were submitted to PCR testing and showed no match to Cotton. </span> At the defense attorneys' request, the results were sent to the State Bureau of Investigation's DNA data base containing the DNA patterns of convicted, violent felons in North Carolina prisons. The State's data base showed a match with the convict who had earlier confessed to the crime. </div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Conclusion: After Cotton's attorneys received the DNA test results in May 1995, they contacted the district attorney, who joined the defense attorneys in the motion to dismiss the charges. On June 30, 1995, Cotton was officially cleared of all charges and released from prison. In July 1995 the governor of North Carolina officially pardoned Cotton, making him eligible for $5,000 compensation from the State. Cotton had served ten and one-half years of his sentence.
</div></div>

Source

[Hush Darlin]

Re: Dangerous White Women

kissteeth

[Tropicana]

Re: SOME Dangerous White Women: Lies Send Black men to Jail


From current issue of People

<span style="font-weight: bold">She sent the Wrong Man to Prison </span>

<span style="font-style: italic">&quot;She accused him of rape; he spent 11 years in custody. Then DNA evidence cleared him, and something amazing happened, - they became friends.&quot;</span>

:dizzy&quot;

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-weight: bold">Mistaken Identity</span>
By Claudia Glenn Dowling
Jennifer Thompson <span style="font-weight: bold">Knew</span> That Ronald Cotton Was the Man Who Raped Her. She Was Wrong. Now, They Hope to Keep Others from Making the Same Tragic ErrorJennifer Thompson had a recurring nightmare. She saw a man's face, one she had seen in the dim light of her stereo, and he was holding a knife at her throat as she lay in bed. Ronald Cotton had a dream too. For 11 years he lay on his bunk in a cell block and dreamed he was getting out. But his dream was Thompson's nightmare: She had identified him as her rapist. And then Ronald Cotton was freed.

In June, on the fifth anniversary of Cotton's release, Thompson was still struggling with a different kind of nightmare—that men like Cotton might face life in prison, or even death, because of the testimony of a single eyewitness, like her. Today, whether sharing her story on talk shows or appearing at press conferences to protest a death penalty case, she still breaks down as she recalls how she had felt so certain when she picked Cotton from a lineup and how DNA tests later proved her irrefutably wrong. &quot;Even under the best circumstances, without prejudice, we can make mistakes,&quot; says Thompson. &quot;We can't make that kind of mistake when putting someone to death.&quot;

Such frightening stories have led to increasing controversy about the death penalty. A Columbia University report found that 68 percent of death sentences imposed between 1973 and 1995 were overturned. Some 70 people in the U.S. and Canada, many jailed for rape, have been exonerated in the past decade because of DNA tests. Prompted by 13 recent cases in which people on death row in Illinois were cleared by new evidence, Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions in that state. And Congress is now considering the Innocence Protection Act, a bill that would give all prisoners access to DNA testing. &quot;In Jennifer's case we learned so much about eyewitness fallibility that the death penalty isn't an option,&quot; says Lawrence Marshall of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, which helps clear innocent prisoners. &quot;It's reckless.&quot;
</div></div>
Source: People Magazine

[Tropicana]

Re: SOME Dangerous White Women: Lies Send Black men to Jail

Bobby Poole the REAL criminal looks NOTHING like Cotton, not even close.

[rufian]

Re: Dangerous White Women

It is the danger of living around them. They are not able to identify other than a black man. How many can actually identify Asians?

[Tropicana]

Re: SOME Dangerous White Women: Lies Send Black men to Jail

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SweetSsop</div><div class="ubbcode-body">kissteeth </div></div>

A Black man spends 11 years behind jail falsely convicted and all you can do is kissteet? Suppose it was YOUR son, father, uncle, or cousin? Would you still kissteet?

[Tropicana]

Re: SOME Dangerous White Women: Lies Send Black men to Jail

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sukuna</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It is the danger of living around them. They are not able to identify other than a black man. How many can actually identify Asians? </div></div>

Remember that wicked woman who drowned her children so that she could be with her boyfriendand then said a BLACK man had kidnapped them? She even helped the police develop a composite sketch. They are always ready to say is some Black man.

[Boricua_papi]

Re: Dangerous White Women

How shall I put this diplomatically? Tropicana is a racist. Dun.

[Hush Darlin]

Re: Dangerous White Women

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SweetSsop</div><div class="ubbcode-body">kissteeth </div></div>

A Black man spends 11 years behind jail falsely convicted and all you can do is kissteet? </div></div>
did you read the papers today or listen to the ews
what about the woamn who spent 13 years in jail for a murder that she did not commit or no one committed she was released on bail today
her two other kids were adopted
and all this happened beacuse of testimony from a doctor
and she was not the only one who went to jail because of said doctor
yes it happened in Toronto

[Tropicana]

Re: SOME Dangerous White Women: Lies Send Black men to Jail

Feel free to start a thread about that if you wish Sweetsopp.

And your point is? To answer your question, &quot;No I have not read today's paper or watched local news today yet&quot;.

[Tropicana]

Re: SOME Dangerous White Women: Lies Send Black men to Jail

This is not an isolated case either:
Source
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wednesday, February 11, 2009
<span style="font-weight: bold">White Women Black Men, Rape and Historical Complexities </span>


This weekend I learned about the case of Timothy Cole. He was recently exonerated post humously for the 1985 rape of Texas Tech sophomore Michele Mallin.


</div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Reading over the facts of the case, what is quite evident is that neither the police or the District Attorneys office were interested in justice.

<span style="font-size: 14pt"><span style="font-weight: bold">He was identified as the suspect in this brutal rape even though he was asthmatic and the rapist was a chain smoker. He also had a very solid alibi but the testimony of the victim was given more weight than those that saw Cole studying in his room on the night of the event.</span></span></div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

In all fairness Mallin could not have made her identification had he not been pointed out by the detectives investigating the case however<span style="font-weight: bold">, for the black community this will stand as one more time when one of our sons has been made to pay with their lives to redeem a white woman. In 1985, Cole had his whole life in front of him and it was cut brutally short by an incorrect victim I.D.</span> </div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
The Cole family has been remarkably forgiving and has embraced Mallin. There are those that believe that this should simply be a natural outcome of this case however, what they fail to consider, is the relationship between white women, black men, violence and death. In this incident there does not appear to have been any malicious intent on the part of Malin however, the black community has had to witness the brutal murder of their sons time and time again to the false claims of white women.</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <span style="font-weight: bold">There are very few blacks that are not still disturbed by what happened to Emmett Till. To this day, images of this young boy who died for allegedly whistling at a white woman continue to haunt us and serve as a reminder of the threat that we face. While it would be nice to simply brush this off as just another case of police misconduct, to the black community it is yet one more reminder of why we must teach our children how to interact with whiteness.</span> Learning to not be noticed, speak in a measured tone, and avoid suspicion can be the tools that will ultimately save your life.</div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
<span style="font-weight: bold">There have been many incidents in which white women have falsely accused black men to cover for sexual behaviour that they willingly participated in, with the full knowledge that they would be believed regardless of what evidence pointed to the contrary.</span> This is no way implies that all rape victims are lying however, when seeking to understand rape and rape allegations that involve a white woman and a black man race and racism can never be removed from the equation. We do not live outside of history, we are the continual product of it.

</div></div>

[jah_yout]

Re: Dangerous White Women

just a tad racist--your thread title

[Nylah]

Re: Dangerous White Women



This situation makes me sad.

I dont know if I will call them &quot;dangerous&quot; women per se but I think these types of convictions are due to the historical issues.
Segregation and viewing blacks as less than human leads to mis-identifcation of white women about their attackers.

She is a bit different than say that woman who killed her kids and then claimed her attacked was black because in ths instance her attacker was indeed black. But because of social segregation combined with the overall unrelability of witness indentification, an innocent black man pays for the sins of another.

It is astounding that this man still went to jail even with this woman's wrong I.D. of him given that he had a more than credible alibi for his whereabouts.....a black person's word didnt care the same weight as a white person's would.

So, it isnt just about some white women being dangerous but rather an entire system that is setup against black men overall due to racial prejudice.

[rufian]

Re: Dangerous White Women

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Nylah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

So, it isnt just about some white women being dangerous but rather an entire system that is setup against black men overall due to racial prejudice. </div></div>
I don't know, statistically black men seem to love to rape white women.

[Tropicana]

Re: SOME Dangerous White Women: Lies Send Black men to Jail

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jah yout</div><div class="ubbcode-body">just a tad racist--your thread title </div></div>

Oh really, and White women lying and sedning Black men to jail isn't?

Can't please people. First there was objection to Blugian'ts brutal mzungu women. I changed it and people still a bawl.

Fine I changed it. Is THAT better:

<span style="font-weight: bold">
SOME Dangerous White Women: Lies Send Black men to Jail</span>

Here AGAIN is the disclaimer:

<span style="font-weight: bold">Disclaimer: </span>This thread is not in any way intended to imply that all or even most White women are dangerous. There are dangerous women in all races. This thread is an exploration of some of the dynamics of race and sex that come into play FAR too often in the criminal justice system.

Now let's get on with the discussion and stick to it.