TCNJ News
For Immediate Release
March 3, 2010
A Wrongful Conviction:
How the system failed both the victim and the accused
EWING, NJ ... He spent more than 10 years in prison for a crime he never committed.
Spending years behind bars, Ronald Cotton knew he never raped Jennifer Thompson, even though she identified him as her assailant in front of police. His life sentence was a mistake.
DNA testing later proved Cotton’s innocence, exonerating him of the crime and sending him home. Despite the tragic failure of the justice system, to this day Cotton and his former accuser, now Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, are friends. Hear their story, and ask them questions on March 15, 2010 at 7 P.M. in Kendall Hall at The College of New Jersey. You will not – and should not – be able to forget this story.
“The story of Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton is so compelling that it challenges our students to see the world beyond their own eyes and experiences,” said Sean O. Stallings, Director of Housing, which is co-sponsoring the event. “This program helps us to work toward our mission of using the transformative power of education to build a strong community of learners.”
Before the discussion, Cotton and Thompson-Cannino will sign copies of their book Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption. Books will be available for purchase for $14.95. The book is a required reading for students in the TCNJ course “Wrongful Convictions,” led by Professor Lynn Goedecke, who also helped organize the event.
The event is first of the college’s Community Engaged Learning Speaker Series. Beforehand, faculty will lead conversations with students in the Travers Wolfe Lounge to “advance the educational goals of the division,” said Patrick Donohue, director of the Bonner Center for Civic and Community Engagement on campus. “This series is designed to provide more opportunities for students and residents to collectively examine important public issues and to consider how we might respond.”
Sponsorship includes the Bonner Center for Civic and Community Engagement, the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, the Department of Residential Education and Housing, the Liberal Learning Program, Department of History, and the school of culture and society.
The event is free and open to the public. More information can be found at www.pickingcottonbook.com . Media questions and other inquiries can be forwarded to:
Sean O. Stallings at (609) 771-3455 or stalling@tcnj.edu
Patrick Donohue at (609) 456-7585 or pdonohue@tcnj.edu
Lynn Goedecke at (215) 962-1005
