Summary Of Picking Cotton By Jennifer Thompson

Improved Essays
At the beginning of the book, I felt bad for Jennifer Thompson. My mind was not prepared for what I was about to read. Before this book I thought I had a pretty good understanding of how the Criminal Justice system worked. I also never put much thought in the victim 's role in the matter or what part they played in the process of the trial. Most of all, I had a belief that if you were truly innocent there is no way that you could be convicted of a crime that you did not commit. As I continued to read on I realized how they were both victims in one way or another. I also realized how flawed our system truly is. There have been 330 people exonerated with DNA evidence, out of the 330 of those people. 205 of them were African American. Innocent …show more content…
It took an hour and a half and then they had a face. In the book Picking Cotton, Jennifer says, “the mouth wasn 't quite right and the ears stuck out too much, but it was close. “The police were happy.” Cannino, J., & Cotton, R. (2009)(23) Jennifer had to go back to the hospital to endure yet another rape kit examination. I felt for Jennifer, no women should have to go through an experience like that once in their life, much less twice. I do not understand why they did rape kits because DNA testing did not become a thing until after the O.J. Simpson case. If they did not test for DNA, why were the rape victims put through such an invasive process if DNA testing was not performed at that time? Siegel, L. (2000)(61) in the textbook states, “that the suffering endured by the crime victims does not end when their attacker leaves the scene of the crime.” Women often suffer from PTSD after such a tragedy and that is exactly what Jennifer suffered from. I believe this contributed to her desire to make sure the investigation went …show more content…
Ron Cotton didn 't even fit the height description of the criminal. The worse part I think happened to him is the police stated several times that the women were raped by the same guy, so why would he be taken back to court and convicted with a second life sentence for the rape of Mary 's rape. When Ron 's blood type does not match the blood found at the second crime scene. Mary could not even Identify her attacker. So the only evidence linking Ron to the second rape was speculation and same MO. Ronald cotton had no Police or Criminal Justice training was even able to figure out that it was Bobby Poole that was guilty of the crimes he was being punished for. Why did no one listen to him, several times Bobby Pool confessed to multiple people that he was responsible for the rapes of the two women? Nothing was looked into or even done, they had a chance at the Voir dire hearing. The judge had enough evidence to have a reasonable doubt and they excluded it, and threw it out. So the jury would never even know the Bobby Pole was a potential suspect. One of the witnesses at the Voir dire hearing stated they saw him wearing white gloves when he rode his bike around town, which Ron said he does indeed have white gloves, but he cuts out the fingers of them. Cannino, J., & Cotton, R. (2009) The attacker was wearing white gloves during the rape if they were Ron 's gloves they would have left fingerprints because they

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Eric Lander Case Summary

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Finally, human error and DNA contamination is a huge concern for ALL free individual’s DNA. Eric Lander in 1990 founded a new center for Genome research at Whitehead, as well as, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Eric Lander has been an expert advisor for the defense on many cases. From Lander’s first hand personal experiences as an expert witness on various court cases, he felt compelled to express his observations of the flaws with DNA fingerprinting identification. Lander’s stated, (1989)…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bryant Vs Milam Essay

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages

    While on trial they were home with family and plastered all over the news. Bryant and Milam had their entire community voicing for them, the community even raised over $10,000. When you watched the news the talk of Bryant and Milam’s town was that the black people were lying about Emmet’s death. Out of the ordinary the number one thing that caught my attention was the judge. With all of the favoritism going on for Bryant and Milam, you would think that the criminal justice system being so “fair” they would give a fair trial, but they didn’t.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Wrongful Conviction On the morning of August 10, 1984, Deborah Sykes was brutally stabbed, sexually assaulted, and eventually killed in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The man convicted for her murder was Darryl Hunt, a 19 year old boy that would go on to spend 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Hunt was convicted based on eye-witness testimony and informants, but was later exonerated based on DNA evidence that matched a man that was caught just a few months after the murder took place. This case is an exemplar of the strength of DNA evidence and the fragility of eyewitness testimony.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why would someone want to harm an innocent family, or put their life in jeopardy at such a young age? These are questions Timothy Hennis should have thought about before he murdered the Eastburn family. Maybe he would have if he had actually harmed them. I’m here to explain why Timothy Hennis is not guilty.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How would you feel if you if you were wrongly accused of a crime because a trait that you were born with? This was the situation during the Scottsboro Case. On March 25, 1931, nine African-American teenagers, including 19 year old Clarence Norris, were hoboing on a freight train from Chattanooga, Tennessee to look for work. The teenagers were taken off the train near Scottsboro, Alabama by local deputies and were accused of raping two white women Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. It is clear that Clarence Norris is not guilty of the rape of Victoria Price and Ruby Bates and he should be released. Obviously, Norris is guilty of hoboing but not rape or assault.…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Picking cotton is a story that has a combination of hate, injustice, love and forgiveness. And it tells us what a small mistake could make and affects human life. Two people were put down into multiple of trials under the condition that Ronald Cotton has raped the victim Jennifer Thompson, which has led to a huge mistake that destroyed Ronald’s life. Jennifer Thompson which is a student, she was sleeping in her apartment just like what normal people do. Then in the middle of the night a man steps into her apartment and eventually he rapes her, Jennifer didn’t know what to do at first she was shocked by the fact that there is a strange man in her room, but Jennifer was a smart girl.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Russell Vs Alabama Essay

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The accusations against the nine young black men were never questioned as they were african-american and also they weren’t from Alabama. This case started out in the Alabama State Court where the nine young black men were tried all together with citizens of the town surrounding the courthouse. The Alabama State Court found the men guilty of rape and sentenced them to death except for one who was a juvenile. The case went onto The Supreme Court of Alabama where the original trial was upheld at a ruling 6-1. Chief Justice Anderson was the…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Scottsboro Case A case that was unfair to the defendants and to the society of mankind. The Scottsboro Case first started on March 25,1931 9 young black men were wrongly accused.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The only evidence there was,was evidence from a white person. More trials ensued to fight against the unfairness of this trial, but the critical point of this is that this was a white vs. black scenario. It was a white person’s word versus a black person’s. And the white word won. This can be linked to when Jim got thrown in prison because they thought he killed Huck.…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Memory is one the most amazing abilities a human being can have. We have the power to store, retain and recall our past life experiences. Although we can recall our memories, what is important to know is that we also have the power to alter our memories without even knowing. Alteration of memory can happen through current experiences and influences, which is what happened to Jennifer Thompson. She was so sure that Ronald Cotton raped her, that when she faced her actual rapist in court she didn't even recognized him.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Audrie And Daisy Analysis

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages

    However, evidence was not the problem with serving justice to these two teenage girls. Full evidence was given to the court and the boy that had raped Daisy was not first charged with anything. One of the boys involved with the assault had political ties with the city and that is one reason believed to be why the boys involved did not get charged. The system allows these type of crimes to happen without repercussions. The victims of rape should not have to feel as if nobody is on there side, instead they should feel like everybody is on there side.…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    I am convinced that the theme in the book Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton is forgiveness. Both of the main characters; Ronald and Jennifer demonstrate forgiveness throughout the book. Ronald learns to forgive the people who put him in prison while Jennifer learns to forgive herself for her mistakes. Ronald spent eleven years in prison but he never once gave up. The one thing that got him through the most horrific days of his life was God.…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book “Ordinary Injustice” by Amy Bach, chapter four titled “Show Trial”, describes a number of different cases showing wrongful convictions being processed through the criminal justice system based off of false confessions. In Chicago, there was a nine-year-old girl named Lisa Cabassa was found raped and killed in the back of an alley a couple miles from her home. Two months after the rape and murder of Lisa, a witness named Judy called the police to give her testimony on the crime. Her statement consisted of her telling the police the people involved with the crime were named Michael Evans and Paul Terry, whom were teenagers from the neighborhood. She spotted them with Lisa that night.…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Picking Cotton Summary

    • 1743 Words
    • 7 Pages

    While reading Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice & Redemption I was faced to realize not everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Ronald Cotton is an African American male who was labeled guilty the moment an officer saw him. He was denied many chances to prove his innocence in the criminal justice system. He spent eleven years in prison for a crime he did not commit.…

    • 1743 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. What is your thesis statement? Innocent individuals have been wrongfully convicted for crimes that they did not commit. This has happened in the past, before DNA technology was available, however, it continues to happen today. Some people have spent several months behind bars, while others have spent decades behind bars, all while being innocent.…

    • 1773 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics