ronald cotton and jennifer thompson cannino

They’ll talk about being in prison for twenty years and not getting a visit from anyone. I think a lot of our exonerees don’t have family. Everybody was behind him and loved him and supported him. No one in his family thought he had done it. I’m a good person.” He didn’t go into prison with this sense of shame or guilt, he knew he was an innocent person.Īnother thing that I think sustained him, and he’s been very fortunate to have this still today, he has a very large and supportive family. I think that gave him this sense of, “I didn’t do anything wrong. I think for Ronald, there were several things. Thompson-Cannino: I work with a lot of exonerees, males and females, in different parts of the country. What do you think sustained Ron while he was in prison-including moving through different prisons and sometimes even states? I read straight through it, because I was so compelled. O’Neill: I honestly couldn’t put the book down. I wanted everyone to be with me and Ron as we traveled through this. It was gripping, and I felt like we were right there with you through the journey. O’Neill: I think the first-person narration worked so well. Several people came along during my journey and told me that the book would never be published, and this should be third person, and I think sometimes when you have a gut instinct about what’s going to work and what’s not going to work, you go with your gut. It really needed to be told in our voices. Also, there was no way it could be a linear approach where it was me talking about our story or Ron talking about our story, because it was both of us living these parallel journeys at the same time. It’s more compelling when you hear someone’s actual voice as opposed to a third-person story. Jennifer Thompson-Cannino: Because it was both of our stories, and I knew that.

Why did you choose to present the story that way?

Tyler O’Neill: Picking Cotton is told through alternating first-person narration. Thompson-Cannino spoke at Hilbert College on October 17. I was lucky enough to interview Jennifer on several different topics, such as her thoughts on the death penalty and her views on judicial reform, as well as her nonprofit organization. Jennifer is one of the authors in Picking Cotton, a rape survivor, and a mother of three.

Jennifer Thompson-Cannino is an advocate for judicial reform as well as a member of the North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission.

Ronald cotton and jennifer thompson cannino