The issues of mistaken identification can be a disaster in someones life, and in this situation it resulted in the lock up of Ronald Cotton for 11 years. In the case, Ronald Cotton who was innocent the whole time spent over a decade of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit, he was sentenced for the rape of Jennifer Cannino with a life sentence. After the DNA exoneration was able to free Cotton Cannino realized that she had been the sole reason to lock up a man for a portion of his life he did not get to enjoy as she did while her real attacker was able to be out during this. The effects on the family of both the victim and the wrongly accused were very strong throughout the whole case as well so the effects were more wide than just the two of them.
The range of those affected can then extend to anyone who has since been the victim of the actual criminal. In this case Poole went on to rape a series of women, crimes which perhaps may not have occurred had Cotton not been wrongfully charged, forcing police to continue their investigation.
