BUIES CREEK, North Carolina – Judicial reform activists and “Picking Cotton” co-authors Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson will deliver the History, Criminal Justice, and Political Science Department’s 2015 Kenelm Lecture at the Weymouth Center in Southern Pines on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m.
Thompson was raped when she was a 22-year-old college student. Her testimony about the rape helped convict Cotton, who was sentenced to life in prison. Cotton was eventually freed due to his persistence in maintaining his innocence and to newly developed DNA tests that led to the true perpetrator.
Together Thompson and Cotton wrote the joint memoir “Picking Cotton,” a New York Times bestseller that recounts their journeys, the tragedy that brought them together, and their mutual conviction that such errors must be recognized, that concrete reforms can lessen the probability of such mistakes, and that apology and forgiveness are important elements of happiness and growth.
They have worked together to successfully lobby state legislators to change compensation laws for the wrongly convicted, to abolish the death penalty, and to revise police eyewitness line-up procedures, among other causes. They also speak before a variety of audiences about race, class, judicial reform, human error, and forgiveness.
In 2013 Thompson was appointed to a three-year term as an alternate member of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only judicial body in the U.S. with the power to free inmates from prison on the basis of actual innocence.She also was a member of the North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission, worked with the North Carolina legislature to pass the Racial Justice Act, and has worked with the legislatures of New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut and Montana as they have considered judicial reforms.
Cotton lives with his wife and daughter in North Carolina. He has spoken at numerous universities, including Washington and Lee University, the Universitiy of Connecticut, and Georgetown University.
Between them, Cotton and Thompson have appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “60 Minutes,” “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” “20/20,” “The View,” NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show,” PBS’s “Frontline,” and A&E’s “American Justice.” They were also featured in the documentary “After Innocence,” which won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and in People, Redbook, Newsweek, and other magazines and publications.