Wrongful Convictions
September 2014 
Voiceover: Beat Intro
00:01	
This is the Beat, a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics 
facing our nation.
Nazmia Comrie
00:08	
Hello and welcome. My name is Nazmia Comrie, and on behalf of the COPS Office, I would like to 
introduce you to Jennifer Thompson, the crime victim from the Ronald Cotton case in North Carolina, 
who misidentified the perpetrator of her rape; and Meg Morrow, attorney advisor, U.S. Department 
of Justice Office for Victims of Crime. They are here to discuss the impacts of wrongful convictions on 
survivors, victims of crime, and law enforcement. Thank you all so much.
Jennifer, what are the impacts of wrongful convictions of survivors and victims of crime?    
Jennifer Thompson
00:43	
It opens the original crime occurred to you or to a family member. But it also compounds it with the 
amount of shame or guilt or feeling responsible. Of course there is a lot of fear that comes into play, 
because now there is someone who is coming out of prison that is innocent and you feel maybe you or 
your family might be in danger. It also opens you up to a lot of blaming and hostility from the public 
when these cases come and the media attention hits it. It’s almost, on some level, worse than the 
actual crime. 
Nazmia
01:20
Jennifer, can you describe what it was like to learn that DNA testing proved a mistake had been made 
in your case and that the man who you thought was the perpetrator was innocent. What personal tolls 
did that have on your life? What about on your view of our criminal justice system?
Jennifer
01:33
Well my personal life, I mean, when it first happened… for 11 years I had been absolutely positively 
certain of Ronald’s guilt. I had a face in my nightmares for the last 4,000 days of my life. I had much of 
my young adulthood—this had really marked me. Then to find out that we had made a mistake. We 
were the same age going into this journey, so we’re the same age now he’s being exonerated. A third 
of his life was just gone off of his personal calendar. For me, it was actually paralyzing. The best word I 
can describe it is suffocating me. I no longer had confidence in myself. I no longer felt safe. I 
mistrusted my own decisions and my own memory on many levels. I also was terrified. I honestly 
believed that Ronald was going to try and seek revenge on me or my children. So it was debilitating on 
many, many levels. So personally, I kind of hid and was very anxious. My children watched significant 
change in my day-to-day movement. I became almost paranoid for their safety. It really restricted me 
on a lot of what I would consider safety and my ability to kind of freely to move about my space 
because now I was afraid at every turn of the corner. 
As far as the criminal justice system, I actually didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand what had 
actually happened. For me, I put all the blame on myself; I was just a bad person, or a bad “victim.” I 
didn’t understand the larger picture, which was the criminal justice system and some of the failures 
that were involved. That would take many, many years for me to uncover and unearth and that’s been 
really doing the work I do. Because of that, my faith in the criminal justice system is not nearly as solid 
as it used to be, even upon the exoneration. I really believed that the system worked effectively, it 
was just me that made the mistake. Like I said, years going forward now, I’ve been able to look at 
other cases and other situations, and realized that it’s systemic issues and problems. It’s not a person 
or a thing that failed.  
Nazmia
04:04
Meg, what role can the Office for Victims of Crime within the U.S. Department of Justice play in 
addressing the needs of survivors and victims of crime in cases of wrongful conviction and 
exoneration?
Meg
04:16
OVC can use its federal leadership role to help build capacity in the victim services field to address the 
very unique needs of victims and survivors whose cases result in an exoneration. We can raise 
awareness about the needs of these victims and survivors. 
Until fairly recently, we didn’t know very much about victims in these cases and the very unique needs 
they have, like some of those things Jennifer talked about. It really has only been with the increase in 
exonerations over the last few years that there has been more attention to the needs of victims of 
the original crime. On the heels of two reports released last year—one was from a National Institute of 
Justice funded study on the experiences of victims in cases of wrongful conviction, one was from a 
summit held by the International Association of Chiefs of Police on preventing wrongful conviction—
OVC has really worked to try to further explore this issue. 
To that end, we are currently preparing to hold a small round table discussion of experts in the fall to 
help us more clearly identify the specific needs of these victims, any resources and services that are 
currently available to meet those needs, gaps in resources and services, and then what resources and 
services ideally should be supported and developed to fill those gaps. We plan to invite 
representatives from a wide range of perspectives to participate, including victim services, criminal 
justice professionals, including law enforcement, prosecution and defense, Innocence Project, 
research, and victims and survivors. From the discussion, we really expert to learn a great deal to 
inform expand OVC’s future work to support the field in this area. 
Finally, I want to highlight that it is critical to include survivors like Jennifer in the discussions like the 
one that OVC is planning. They are the only ones who can authentically speak to the experiences of 
victims and survivors following an exoneration. I also want to commend Jennifer for having the 
courage and strength to come forward and talk about her experience with misidentifying Ronald 
Cotton. She’s an inspiration to those of us who want to improve services to this group of victims 
whose needs, frankly, have been largely un-served at this point. 
Nazmia
06:58	
Yes. Thank you both today for your time and expertise. And thank you so much, Jennifer, for being 
willing to talk about your experiences with us.  
Voiceover: Beat Exit
07:08	
The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice, COPS Office. The COPS 
Office helps to keep our nation’s communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, 
developing community policing publications, developing partnerships, and solving problems.
Voiceover: Disclaimer
07:24	
The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official 
position or polices of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, 
products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. 
Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.