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Title details for Picking Cotton by Ronald Cotton - Wait list

Picking Cotton

Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption

by Ronald Cotton
Jennifer Thompson-Cannino
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 6 weeks
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 6 weeks
Jennifer Thompson was raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her apartment while she slept. She was able to escape and eventually identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker. Ronald insisted that she was mistaken—but Jennifer's positive identification was the compelling evidence that put him behind bars. After eleven years, Ronald was allowed to take a DNA test that proved his innocence. He was released after serving more than a decade in prison for a crime he never committed. Two years later, Jennifer and Ronald met face to face—and forged an unlikely friendship that changed both of their lives.


In their own words, Jennifer and Ronald unfold 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 17, 2009

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400191529
      • File size: 224909 KB
      • Duration: 07:48:33

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In 1984, at the age of 22, Ronald Cotton was convicted of raping Jennifer Thompson and imprisoned for 11 years. After he was exonerated, he forgave his accuser, and together they tell their story in this work. Narrator Karen White's tense delivery suggests Jennifer's fear during the rape and the long-term trauma she suffered afterwards. White also mirrors Thompson's regrets and her resolve that Cotton receive restitution. In contrast, Richard Allen's characterization of Cotton suggests his na•veté as a young black man accused of rape. Allen reflects Cotton's initial compliance with the police, his anger at the horrors of prison, his growing faith over the years, and his gratitude for those who helped him achieve his release. Both narrators successfully portray the development of the friendship between Cotton and Thompson-Cannino. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 1, 2008
      In July 1984, Thompson-Cannino, a white college student in Burlington, N.C., was raped by a black intruder. She identified her assailant in a lineup as Cotton; he was sentenced to life plus 50 years. When he secured a new trial in 1987, he found himself charged with a second attack and sentenced to two life sentences plus 54 years. DNA evidence at a new trial, eight years later, exonerated him of both charges. Authors Thompson-Cannino and Cotton offer this riveting account of their separate, yet connected, lives through those years. The first two parts describe their dreadful experiences: for her, in the “aliva swabs, vaginal swabs, pubic hair combings” of the rape kit; for him, being “sprayed like a dog getting defleaed” at the prison. Thompson-Cannino describes the invasive procedures following a rape, unsettling police procedures (the lineup), unfamiliar legal stages (such as a probable cause hearing) and the disturbing trial. Cotton leads readers through the events following a conviction (the several prisons, adjustments to the prison norm, the alternating hope and despair of the judicial stages). Redemption is the subject of the third part, where Thompson-Cannino and Cotton forge a path to genuine friendship in advocating for the wrongfully convicted. Together they have produced a well-modulated and generously balanced memoir—at once a devastating and uplifting crash course in the criminal justice system.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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