The Book

Picking Cotton The true story of an unlikely friendship between a woman and the innocent man she sent to prison, will be the 2010 summer reading book at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Picking Cotton" (St. Martin's Press, 2009) was written by the reconciled pair, Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton - both of North Carolina - with help from ghost writer Erin Torneo.

Jennifer Thompson was 22 and a college student in 1984, when an African-American man broke into her North Carolina apartment and raped her at knifepoint. Thompson, who is white, subsequently picked Cotton, then 22, out of a line-up. He went to prison on a life sentence, proclaiming his innocence.

Eleven years later, Cotton was allowed to make use of a new technology and take a DNA test; it proved that he did not commit the crime. UNC law professor Richard Rosen was one of two lawyers who represented Cotton pro bono during this time.

Two years after his release, Cotton and Thompson-Cannino met. "Despite what he had been through, Ronald never harbored resentment against Jennifer," says the Web site www.indiebound.org. "When they finally decided to meet, he immediately and unreservedly forgave Jennifer for her mistake."

Thompson-Cannino is now an activist against mistaken eyewitness identification and capital punishmen