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it's a cliche of courtroom dramas that moment when the eyewitness is asked do you see the person who committed the crime here in this courtroom before you well it happens in real courtrooms all the time and to jurors that point of the finger by a confident witness is about as damning as evidence can get but there is one type of evidence that's even more persuasive and that of course is DNA there have been two hundred thirty three people exonerated by DNA in this country and now a stunning pattern has emerged more than three-quarters of them was sent to prison at least in part because an eyewitness pointed a finger and eye witness who we now know was wrong it was hot and humid in Burlington North Carolina on the night of July 28 1984 Jennifer Thompson then a 22 year old college student had gone to bed early in her off-campus apartment as she slept a man shattered the light bulb near her back door cut her phone line and broke in I remember kind of waking up and turning my head to the side and saying who's there who is it and I saw the top of someone's head kind of sliding beside my mattress and I screamed and I felt blade go to my throat a knife a knife and he told me to shut up where he was going to kill me her first thought was to offer him anything she had to go away you can have my credit card you can have my wallet you can have anything and the apartment get in my car and he looked at me and said I don't want your money and I knew what was getting ready to happen she vowed to stay alert and study him so that if she lived she could help put him away forever what is his voice is he have an accent does he have a scar is there a tattoo he's raping you and you're studying his faith it was just trying to pay attention to a detail that if I survived and that was my plan I'd be able to help the police catch him after about half an hour Jennifer trick the rapists into letting her get up and fix him a drink and she ran out the back door he fled and raped a second woman half a mile away Detective Mike golden met Jennifer at the hospital the first comment I remember her making was that I'm gonna get this guy that did this to me she said I took the time to look at him I will be able to identify him if I'm given an opportunity detective gaulden worked with Jennifer to make a composite sketch poring over eyes noses ears lips trying to recreate the face she had seen that night the sketch went out and tips started coming in one of those tips was about a young man...