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Picking Cotton is the true story of a man named Ronald Cotton who was falsely accused of rape and exonerated over 10 years later with the help of DNA technology. It is co penned by the woman who falsely accused him, Jennifer Thompson Cannino. After his exoneration the two struck an unlikely friendship. The rape occurred in the mid 80s in North Carolina in a small town. A man burglarized and raped Jennifer in her own home. It was the height of Ronald Reagan's "War on Drugs" and the race relations between blacks and whites in America were polarized even more than ever.

Picking Cotton is about two main characters Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson Cannino. Ronald Cotton is a black man. He was arrested in his early twenties. He seems to be a sweet man with a mild mannered demeanor from a low income neighborhood. Jennifer Thompson Cannino is a white woman who seems to be a very cautious woman who lived a relatively normal life before she was raped. My favorite parts of the novel was when he detailed his time in prison. He seems to take the sentence better than the other inmates and even gave advice on doing time while in prison. The fact that he was imprisoned with the actual rapist was very shocking as well.

SYSTEMATIC RACISM plays a major part in this true story. Ronald Cotton was misidentified and tried and sentenced due to the lack of due process black people are allotted in America. There was misidentification, and unvalidated forensic science used to convict Mr Cotton. PREJUDICE also is a major part of the story, I believe because of Jennifer's own prejudice she could see no difference in the black men in the lineup and her assailant.  I learned about the Innocence project which help to get Mr Cotton exonerated. They used their funding to reopened and try cases where DNA testing could exonerate a falsely accused or identified inmate.