In July 1984, Jennifer Thompson, at the time a student at Elon College, was victim to a brutal sexual assault. After her house was broken into and she was raped at gunpoint, Jennifer escaped. Picking Cotton is the memoir that covers this case, and also the story behind how Ronald Cotton was victim to mistaken identity, set right here in North Carolina, in a town called Burlington.
The book shifts from the narratives of Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton. The rape mentally wrecks Jennifer, and even after that night, the case never seems to completely go away between court hearings and interviews that only wound her further. While trying to identify the intruder in a lineup, she recognizes and picks Ronald Cotton, a local resident of Burlington, as the perpetrator. Part II covers the story of Ronald – how he suffered from racial injustice and stays alive in jail, paying for a crime that he never committed. I’d absolutely reccommend this book as it covers the mystery of memory and makes you think deeply through the case. I would also challenge you to think about Christ as you read it.
Cotton survives in jail because of his dependence on The Lord. He was the only one that Cotton could talk to, that would understand his situation, and who was going to have his way- after all, his will would be done. The story proceeds and time passes year after year… and he perseveres. After standing alone while everyone was calling him guilty for a crime he never committed, a breakthrough solution became available: DNA testing. This testing placed a fellow inmate as the true perpetrator and Cotton was released a free man. Instead of resenting Thompson for calling him guilty every time they were in court and sending him back into the jail he didn’t deserve to be in, he wanted to meet her and show her absolute forgiveness.
In response to the memoir I began to think about how I would have felt in that position. I imagine myself hot and bothered having known I was accused of something repulsive and yet my voice didn’t carry enough weight for anyone to believe me. I also think of the sweet feeling of tasting freedom after 11 years later after such tribulation – of seeing the sunlight and starting a new phase of restoration. But in reality, I’m not in that position. In fact, I live in the opposing way. My record is full of crimes, lies, and everything I do is completely short of God’s standard of perfection. Yet, I have been redeemed from all of them, living in the New Covenant in Christ. Ronald Cotton is a literary Christ figure, but the latter is the name we really need to know.
On the cross he absorbed the sin of the world, nailing the crimes he never committed to the cross, meanwhile he took on the punishment that those crimes deserved in our place, so that those who repented and believed in Him would have their sins forgiven.
Jesus Christ came to Earth (cue your Christmas music), tempted in every way yet never falling to sin, and he was condemned as a liar when he said he was the Savior, the Messiah, and the King. He was condemned to be nailed to a cross on Calvary, where his body hung, and he died. On the cross he absorbed the sin of the world, nailing the crimes he never committed to the cross, meanwhile he took on the punishment that those crimes deserved in our place, so that those who repented and believed in Him would have their sins forgiven. After 3 days, the tomb was empty; Jesus rose from the dead, and is now reigning at the right hand of God. That is the root of hope and of freedom – The Son of Man reigning on High, who tore the veil so that we could follow him, and be in fellowship with the Father forever, only through Christ. How thankful we can be that he poured out his love for us on the cross so that we could live forever, in eternity, with Him.