Long Overdue: Utah’s Incomplete Approach to Eyewitness Identification and Suggestions for Reform

On January 17, 1985, Ronald Cotton, a twenty-two-year-old black man, was convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison. That evening, his alleged victim, Jennifer Thompson, “toasted her victory with champagne.” Approximately six months earlier, in July of 1984, when Thompson was a twenty-two-year-old college student, a black male had broken into Thompson’s apartment, “held a knife to her throat, and forced her to submit to sexual intercourse.” During the course of the horrific attack, Thompson vowed to stay alert so that she could later help police catch her attacker and put him away forever. At one point during the rape, she even tricked the man into turning on a light so she could memorize his face and check him for scars, tattoos, and other distinguishing features that could help her identify him.