Spotlights
Interview with Dr. Jennifer Marson
During the January segment of the College of Community and Public Service (CCPS) Community Connections with WGVU Morning Show host Shelley Irwin, Dr. Jennifer Marson shared more about the crime survivor and judicial reform advocate, Jennifer Thompson. Thompson told her story and the need for criminal justice reform at an event hosted by CCPS and the School of Criminal Justice this past October. Over 250 GVSU faculty/staff, students, and community members attended this event.
In 1984, Thompson was a college student in North Carolina where she was assaulted and brutally raped. During her attack, she made a conscious effort to memorize every aspect of her attacker in the hopes that she could bring him to justice. Jennifer positively identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker. He was convicted and sent to prison for life. After servicing eleven year of his sentence, DNA testing proved his innocence and set him free.
Today, Thompson and Cotton tour the country speaking out against wrongful convictions, restorative justice, and the process of healing and forgiveness.
Thompson is the founder and board chair of the Healing Justice Project, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for healing in cases involving wrongful convictions and exonerations. She is the co-author of "Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption."
Dr. Marson also shared her research interest on mass atrocities both locally and globally.
More on the Healing Justice Project
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