Healing the Harms of Wrongful Conviction

Abstract

A Boston College Innocence Program event

About Jennifer Thompson:

Jennifer Thompson was raped at knifepoint in her apartment when she was a college student. Based on her mistaken eyewitness identification of him as her assailant, Ronald Cotton served 11 years of a life sentence before DNA proved his innocence. Jennifer and Ronald became unlikely friends and advocates for social justice reform. Their memoir Picking Cotton, written with Erin Torneo, is a New York Times best seller. Since her 2000 New York Times op ed "I was certain but I was wrong," Jennifer has been one of the Innocence Movement's most compelling witnesses to the harms of wrongful conviction and one of the nation's most persuasive voices for death penalty abolition and criminal justice reform. She was the Innocence Network's 2014 Champion of Justice. She is the Founder and President of Healing Justice, an organization that provides support to all who are harmed by wrongful convictions.

About Wrongful Conviction Day:

Wrongful Conviction Day is an international initiative to educate people about the causes and remedies of wrongful convictions and their tremendous personal and social harms.

About the Boston College Innocence Program:

The BC Innocence Program is a clinical legal educational program where students and faculty study the problem of wrongful convictions and work together to remedy and prevent these injustices. Supervised by Professors Sharon Beckman and Charlotte Whitmore, and in collaboration with the Committee for Public Counsel Services Innocence Program and the New England Innocence Project, BC Law students investigate and evaluate innocence claims, represent prisoners seeking relief from erroneous convictions, and work on amicus briefs, public policy initiatives, and interdisciplinary research projects. The BCIP, which is a member of the national Innocence Network, also provides undergraduate internships and supports public education and attorney training on topics relating to wrongful convictions. For more information about the BC Innocence Program contact Sharon Beckman at beckmans@bc.edu.