40. Jennifer Thompson survived a brutal attack and convicted the wrong man

All The Wiser

Kimi Culp

Society & Culture, Education, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

4.9 • 652 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2020

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On July 28th, 1984, Jennifer Thompson was asleep when a man broke into her apartment at 3:00am and brutally raped her. Jennifer knew in that moment that if she survived, memorizing his features would be critical in helping to catch and convict her attacker. The straight-A student studied him carefully and was later praised by police after picking him out of a line-up. The only problem? She picked the wrong man. Ronald Cotton spent over a decade in prison for a crime he did not commit. In this episode, Jennifer talks about how memory gets contaminated, why the need to blame someone can create an entirely false narrative, and how turning her pain into purpose has given victims of wrongful conviction a place to find healing and forgiveness.

Episode benefitting https://healingjusticeproject.org/

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Transcript

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0:53.6	It's about keeping
0:54.4	everything secure. I remember thinking to myself, you have to stay calm. You have got to stay
1:01.4	present. I quickly ascertained I wasn't the first victim and I was not going to be his last victim.
1:15.2	Welcome to All the Wiser. I'm Kimmy Kulf. All the Wiser is a one-for-one podcast. For every inspiring interview you hear, we donate $2,000 to charities around the
1:22.8	world. I believe in the power of storytelling to inspire us all to think differently about the world around us.
1:29.9	So I've combed the country for some of the most jaw-dropping stories you have ever heard,
1:36.4	people who have been to the brink and back, stories of survival against all odds,
1:41.1	and whose lives have been changed in unthinkable ways.
1:46.3	Today's interview is with Jennifer Thompson.
1:50.3	Jennifer was a young college student when she was brutally attacked, raped, and nearly murdered
1:56.8	in the middle of the night.
1:59.2	She will explain to you in great detail how somehow she had the wherewithal to focus on
2:05.8	all the details of her attackers, face, and body.
2:11.1	Jennifer survived and hours later found herself in the hospital with her body as the crime scene.
2:19.3	In the hours and days that followed, Jennifer was interrogated
	...

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