http://heylady.net/2009/07/25/review-picking-cotton-by-jennifer-thompson-cannino-and-ronald-cotton/
I Read this book Picking Cotton last semester, Picking Cotton is the true story of how a 22-yead-old college student, Jennifer Thompson-Cannino picked Ronald Cotton out of a line-up as the man who raped her; She claimed that she had studied every detail of the suspect and confidently indentified Ronald Cotton. Cotton was convicted and spent 11 years in prison before DNA evidence showed he was innocent. Picking Cotton is told in Thompson-Cannino and Cotton’s alternating voices, starting before the trial and leading up to their eventual friendship after Cotton was released.
This book remaind me about the video, Witch Hunt, which some innocent parents have been convicted child molestation by their children`s manipulated testinoy Witness testimony is valued as vital evidence in the court no matter how the victim make the testimony: either manipulated by DA or false memories. W automatically presume that victim are telling the true: espectially the serious criminal charges like rape and molestation. Many innocent people has been locked up because of false witness testimony. If there were no DNA test, Ronald Cotton would be still in the prison, while other innocents, whose case are not supported by DNA test would serve their full term.Picking Cotton is a powerful reminder to me that our system of justice that results in the imprisonment of innocent people needs to be improved.
This book sounds very interesting. I think that these type of cases are happening a little more often and its a really bad situation. I was actually talking about this with a friend a couple days ago on how a women can scream rape, and you have the police force immediately looking for the culprit… you can point at someone random, at that person just goes to jail. They take our word for it, and they of course investigate later, but they will take you to jail just because we pointed at you. At the moment, they find no evidence against you, and you will serve some type of jail form. There has to be some type of different system for these situations, because sometimes, these crimes are not not true, and we are sending innocent people to jail.
-Armenis P.