44 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton, Erin TorneoPicking Cotton: Our Memoir Of Injustice And Redemption
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Racism and Unjust Incarceration
Content warning: The guide contains discussions of rape, sexual assault, and racism that appear in the source text.
From the moment Ronald drives to the police station to prove his innocence, he and his family members know that he will likely be convicted for a crime he did not commit. Since his adolescence, Ronald was a victim of unfair targeting by the police, who added false charges to his juvenile record. This is compounded by poor treatment from his lawyer, who convinced him to plead guilty to attempted rape in order to lessen his sentence. The detectives on Jennifer's case made it clear from the beginning that they had no intention of investigating Ronald's innocence, and the judge at his first sentencing did not hesitate to believe that Ronald was “one of the most dangerous men he had ever met” (93).
After his second conviction, Ronald faces a crossroads. He makes his peace with the fact that he may never get out of prison. His approach to experiencing racism and unjust incarceration is to maintain his humanity and not succumb to the temptation of becoming a criminal just because he has been branded one. When he learns of Poole's presence in the prison, he has the desire for revenge and even makes a shank to kill him with. Thanks to his father's intervention, Ronald decides against it. He acknowledges that even though he has been unjustly convicted and may never leave prison, he still has something to live for. He decides that he will do whatever he can to remain as free as possible, even behind bars: “You had to be free in your heart. Guilt, fear, anger—they were all their own kinds of prison” (170). He is determined to control what he can control, and this grants him the greatest level of freedom that he will experience until he is actually released.
Ronald combats the racism and injustice he experiences by becoming his own advocate. Though most of his attempts are unsuccessful, his proactive attitude proves that the system hasn't broken him, as it aims to do. His determination enables him to remain hopeful until he is exonerated by DNA evidence.
One of the messages of Picking Cotton is that the history of anti-Black racism and unjust incarceration in the American justice system is an ongoing struggle. While progress has been made, systemic racism remains embedded in the legal and criminal justice systems, requiring continued advocacy, reform, and vigilance to achieve true racial justice.
Victimization, Guilt, and Shame
Throughout Picking Cotton, Jennifer is nearly overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and shame. Initially, it is a shame that she comes to see as typical in people who have been raped. They wonder if they could have done something differently, or even, as is the case with the woman she meets after one of her talks, if they deserved their rapes. The shame is sometimes acute enough that women do not report their rapes, preferring to bury their feelings rather than speak about the experience and let other people know.
Throughout the memoir, Jennifer describes feeling overwhelmed by the stigma of being raped, Paul's accusations that she enjoyed it, her personal feelings of shame, and the trauma of the assault itself. American society has deep-seated biases about sexual behavior and emphasizes the need for women to conform to gender norms. Jennifer internalizes these expectations, feeling that her worth is diminished or that has somehow failed to protect herself. This is particularly apparent when Paul asks if she enjoyed being raped, implying that she should have fought harder to get away. She describes how both society and individuals in her life suggest that she is responsible for the rape due to her actions, which reinforces her feelings of guilt.
Jennifer deals with another level of guilt and shame when she realizes that she unjustly accused Ronald. Part 3 details the difficulty Jennifer has in dealing with the trial and the knowledge that Ronald is not, in fact, the rapist. When she believes he is out for revenge, she is compelled to tell people in her community--particularly her children's school teachers--that she is a rape victim with "a bad memory" (216). After Ronald is released, Jennifer is not freed from her guilt, but experiences a new form of it: She must now live with the guilt of taking away 11 years of an innocent man’s life. This cost is most obvious to her when she meets Raven, who never would have been born if Ronald had remained in prison.
The memoir concludes that the antidote to shame and guilt are faith and forgiveness. When Jennifer and Ronald meet, Ronald is able to forgive Jennifer—although his wife, Robbin, struggles with anger toward her. Jennifer has spent most of her life attending church and is familiar with the concepts of grace and forgiveness, but Ronald’s acceptance of her and his ability to move past his anger is the first time she has seen what she considers true grace in action. Ronald’s example allows her to begin to forgive herself for her mistake. If he can forgive her, why should she not be able to forgive herself? She becomes so committed to the exploration of forgiveness that she attempts to meet with Bobby Poole, although this will be a fruitless effort.
The final piece of Jennifer's evolution through guilt and shame is activism. Jennifer is unable to assuage her own guilt until she begins working with Ronald, volunteering at SCAN, and learning more about the unreliability of witness testimony. Through this work, she not only hopes to atone for her mistake but also to ensure that fewer people become victims of faulty testimony and shoddy investigations.
The Unreliability of Eyewitness Testimony
Jennifer’s testimony—and her identification of Ronald in the lineup—is the prosecution’s key evidence again him, and the proof that leads to his incarceration. But it is not evidence at all, given that Ronald was not involved in the rape. The fallibility of eyewitness testimony becomes more obvious as the narrative proceeds, receiving extra reinforcement in the concluding sections when Jennifer begins learning from law professors that people’s recollections of extreme events rarely reflect the truth. Jennifer believed she had all the evidence she needed, but after Ronald was vindicated, she had to admit that she had been wrong. Her proof was imaginary, fueled by rage, fear, and the detectives' acceptance of Ronald's guilt without further investigation. Her realization leads her to begin work as an activist for other people who have been wrongfully convicted.
Mary's faulty recollection furthers the belief that Ronald is guilty when he in fact had nothing to do with the rapes involving the two women. Both Mary and Jennifer claim complete certainty, and even though Mary's composite sketch more closely matches Poole's description, by then, the judge and investigators are not willing to revisit the possibility of Ronald's innocence. It has been proven that high-stress situations, such as witnessing or experiencing a crime, can impair a person's ability to accurately perceive and remember details. The presence of a weapon, known as "weapon focus," can also narrow a witness's attention, leading to inaccuracies in recalling other details like the perpetrator's face. Mary experiences another phenomenon that affects eyewitness testimony, which is known as the misinformation effect. Victims and witnesses can be influenced by post-event information, whether from conversations with others, media reports, or suggestive questioning by law enforcement. This misinformation effect can lead witnesses to incorporate false details into their memory of the event. It is important to note that neither Jennifer nor Mary knowingly made a false accusation against Ronald. It was up to law enforcement to perform a more thorough investigation, which could reinforce or contradict the women's claims.
The unreliability of eyewitness testimony is crucial in this case because it is the only evidence the court uses to convict Ronald. The detectives do not look further into the possibility of Ronald's innocence, and the judge does not admit testimony about Poole's confessions of his crimes. Unreliable testimony coupled with anti-Black racism and the justice system's history of unjust incarceration of Black men conspire against Ronald, and he becomes responsible for proving his innocence, which was really the job of law enforcement.
The case spans most of the 1990s, which provides a more reliable alternative to eyewitness testimony. It is not until DNA testing is possible that an objective form of proof can be introduced into the proceedings. Even then, there are people such as Sullivan who seem to remain convinced that Ronald is guilty, showing that sometimes, prejudice outweighs even scientific proof.
