I didn’t know many people in my neighborhood, although I passed their houses and proud lawns every day.

There weren’t any sidewalks on West Front Street, so during the summer I hugged the edge of the road, trying to stay in the patches of shade when the magnolia trees provided them. I USED TO WALK three miles to campus and back every day from my apartment in Burlington. The book is thought provoking and well written, a very good read. Still, I can't help but wonder how many innocent people have been executed in the name of justice because of mistakes made and preconceived notions of guilt. Of course, I am not naive enough to believe that every person who says he is innocent actually is, or even that many of them are. While there is much right with our justice system, there is still much wrong. Except for his family, everyone knew he was guilty.More than just the stories of these two very different people, this is a tale of our justice system, and about the reliability of eyewitness testimony.

Jennifer was urged to just get on with her life, and because she didn't fight the rapist, was made to feel it was her fault. The only problem is that in picking Cotton, Jennifer picked the wrong guy.This story is written from their separate viewpoints. She picked Cotton out of photos and a line-up, and he spent eleven years in prison, claiming innocence. As it was happening, Jennifer had the presence of mind to try to memorize her attacker's face so that she could identify him later. When a book group picked it for the June read, I had to join in.********Minor Spoiler that you'll know anyway if you read the inside flap of the book *******Jennifer Thompson was a young woman when a young black man broke into her apartment and raped her at knife point. Read moreĪlthough I already knew the basic facts of this story from TV coverage, I wanted to read the whole story. With Picking Cotton, Jennifer and Ronald tell in their own words the harrowing details of their tragedy, and challenge our ideas of memory and judgment while demonstrating the profound nature of human grace and the healing power of forgiveness. Two years later, Jennifer and Ronald met face to face- and forged an unlikely friendship that changed both of their lives. He was released, after serving more than a decade in prison for a crime he never committed. Ronald insisted that she was mistaken- but Jennifer's positive identification was the compelling evidence that put him behind bars.Īfter eleven years, Ronald was allowed to take a DNA test that proved his innocence. She was able to escape, and eventually positively identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker. Jennifer Thompson was raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her apartment while she slept. The New York Times best selling true story of an unlikely friendship forged between a woman and the man she incorrectly identified as her rapist and sent to prison for 11 years.

Picking cotton memoir