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21. Wrongly convinced man and his accuser tell their stories
NEW
YORK,NY, January 5,2010. St. Martin’s Press has announced the release of
the paperback edition of Picking Cotton, a remarkable true story of
what novelist John Grisham calls an “account of violence, rage,
redemption (救赎) ,and, ultimately forgiveness.”
The story began
in 1987, in Burlington, North Carolina, with the rape of a young while
college student named Jennifer Thompson. During her ordeal(折磨), Thompson
swore(发誓) to herself that she would never forget the face of her
rapist(强奸犯), a man who climbed through the window of her apartment and
assaulted(攻击) her brutally.【46】When the police asked her if she could
identify the assailant (袭击者) from a book of mug shots(嫌疑犯照片), she picked
one that she was sure was correct, and later she identified the same
man in a lineup(行列).
Based on her convincing eye witness
testimony, a 22-year-old black man named Ronald Cotton was sentenced to
prison for two life terms. Cotton's lawyer appealed the decision(提出上诉),
and by the time of the appeals hearing(上诉听证会), evidence had come to
light suggesting that the real rapist might have been a man who looked
very like Cotton, an imprisoned criminal named Bobby Poole.【47】Jennifer Thompson looked at both men face to
face, and once again said that Ronald Cotton was the one who raped her.
Eleven years later, DNA evidence completely exonerated(证明……清白)Cotton
and just as unequivocally(明确地) convicted Poole, who confessed to the
crime. 【48】“The man I was
so sure I had never seen in my life was the man who was inches from my
throat, who raped me, who hurt me, who took my spirit away, who robbed
me of my soul,” she wrote. “And the man I had identified so surely on so
many occasions was absolutely innocent.”
【49】Remarkably both were able to put this tragedy behind them, overcome the
racial barrier that divided them, and write a book, which they have
subtitled “Our memoir(回忆录) of injustice and redemption(拯救).”
Nevertheless, Thompson says, she still lives “with constant pain that my
profound mistake cost him so dearly.【50】”