07/19/2026: Healing Justice, Flight of the Monarchs

0:08Good job. It's rare for 60 minutes to follow a story for 17 years. But tonight you'll be reintroduced to Jennifer Thompson, a rape victim who mistakenly identified an innocent man who was sent to prison. And then I'm going to tie my string. Jennifer has created something called Healing Justice, a program that brings together crime victims, family members, and innocent men. Dear Chris, you failed in life. Why did you confess? I will never have confessed. Why can't you just be quiet? You are an angry black man. You will never know love. You will always be a prisoner.

0:54It's not easy to get to, and it's not easy to see at first, but then one of the most amazing migration stories in nature reveals itself.

1:07Towers of monarch butterflies. Orange, twisting, soaring, and one of the most remarkable things we've ever seen.

1:21I'm Leslie Stahl. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm Bill Whitaker. Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes.

1:3917 years ago, we reported on a woman named Jennifer Thompson, a rape victim who was devastated to learn years after her assault that she and the police had identified an innocent man who was convicted and sent to prison while the actual rapist had gone on to attack several more women. It's not an uncommon story in this era of DNA exonerations, and Jennifer Thompson has tried for years to do something about it. Thompson knows firsthand that wrongful convictions scar not just the unjustly convicted, but also the original crime victims who are often overlooked. So, as we first reported in 2024, she's doing something no one else has tried, and perhaps only she could pull off, bringing together crime victims and innocent men from different cases for what she calls healing justice.

2:40What I'm going to ask you to do is turn your bowl upside down. What we saw on day one of a multi-day group retreat Jennifer Thompson is leading sure didn't look like healing. Ten men and women, plus an observer. Nice job, Leslie. Smashing bowls with a hammer. Nice. What I'm going to ask you to do now is I'm going to ask you to repair it. It was quite something to realize that gluing pieces back together at one table were two women who had been raped at the ages of 15 and 12, sitting across from two men who, in unrelated cases, had been wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting children and had each spent more than two decades in prison.

3:28Anyone need a little blob of glue? At the next table, another woman who survived a sexual assault, sitting beside a man exonerated for rape and murder. And at our table, the partner and daughter of a murder victim. Everyone here, part of a case where the wrong man was sent to prison for years and years. You have said that wrongful convictions aren't a single bullet. You said they're bombs. A wrongful conviction doesn't hurt, like, a person. It's not just Raymond Tower got hurt. Like his whole family got shrapnel, and the victims got shrapnel, and the community received shrapnel because a child molester was still in the community.

4:14There's just so many people in a wrongful conviction. I think it's hundreds of people for every single wrongful conviction case that are hurt. Jennifer Thompson was one of them. She was a college student in 1984 when a man broke into her off-campus apartment and raped her at knife point. Jennifer worked with police to create a composite sketch, then identified a man named Ronald Cotton in the photo and physical lineups police showed her. Jennifer testified in court against Ronald Cotton and was relieved when he received a life sentence.

4:57But after 11 years in prison, DNA testing proved Cotton's innocence and identified the actual rapist, whose photo had not been in the lineup. Ronald Cotton was exonerated, and Jennifer was wracked with guilt, as she told us in 2009. Shame? Shame. Terrible shame. Suffocating, debilitating shame. Jennifer turned that shame into action. She apologized to Ronald Cotton in person and then started speaking around the country to police and prosecutors, sometimes together with Cotton, about how to make wrongful convictions less likely. But over the years, as exonerations of the innocent have multiplied, Finally we're free.

5:50With more than 3 ,800 freed so far, I'm free! Based on new evidence, including DNA, Jennifer began focusing in on what was being overlooked. What do you think most people feel and see when they see an innocent man come out of prison? It's the day that that man or woman who's wrongfully incarcerated and their families are rejoicing. I know you didn't do it. I know. It's the day they've been dreaming about. They've prayed for. They're on the court steps, and their arms are raised high, and it's a day of celebration. But for the crime victims, for the murder victim family members, they're sitting back here saying, hey, hold up a second.

6:36This is another nightmare on top of a nightmare. The victims have been forgotten. Victims, she says, like Tamicia Carrington-Artis, who was 12 years old when a man broke into her bedroom and raped her. He grabbed me by my throat and put a knife to my throat and said if I screamed, he was going to kill me and my mom. Grabbed me from behind, put me in a chokehold. Penny Bernson, sexually assaulted at age 36 as she went for an afternoon run along the shore of Lake Michigan. And he said, now I'm going to kill you, now you're going to die. And Loretta Zillinger-White, who was raped at age 15 on the way to school one morning after she'd missed her bus.

7:22It's hard. People expect you to just put it behind you and not think about it again. And they don't realize that it's going to affect you for the rest of your life. All these women, like Jennifer, had identified a suspect the police showed them, only to learn years later that those men were innocent, and they were gripped by a whole new nightmare. I felt so bad for him because I felt like I sent this man to prison. That's all I could think about. I got scared. I felt like that he was going to try to come out and kill me. I just, I shut down. Did people blame you? Oh, absolutely. The first time I went out in public, a friend came up to me and said, I can't believe you're showing your face.

8:13They were saying that I needed to go to prison. That you needed to go? Yes. That I intentionally sent the wrong man to prison. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it was bad. Yeah. Memory experts have long understood how crime victims can get it wrong. In our earlier story about Jennifer's case, Professor Gary Wells showed us a simulated crime scene and then a lineup. Now, you know now, after we've talked, probably not to pick anyone. No, no, actually. I actually know who it is, because if I had come upon that, I think it's this guy. Am I wrong? Am I wrong? Yeah. I'm wrong? Yeah. It's none of them. Studies have shown again and again, when the actual perpetrator is not in the lineup, witnesses often pick the wrong man who then comes to replace the original offender in their memory of the crime.

9:12In Jennifer's case and to Misha and Penny's, the real perpetrators, revealed by DNA years later, had not been in the original lineups. Twenty years later when they come to me and say, by the way, the person who raped you never went to prison. And the person we thought is innocent. See ya. And oh, by the way, it's all your fault. It's not the system's fault. I mean, here was my narrative. Rape victim falsely accuses an innocent man and sends him to prison. Everything's wrong with that. Because a false accusation denotes a lie. Deliver it. Why would a crime survivor, Why would a victim want the wrong person to go to prison?

10:00That doesn't make any sense at all. You know, when you hear what you're saying, then we get it, but we don't hear it. As you said, there's a blazing headline, man is freed, person who fingered him got it wrong. That's it. And the system now doesn't get held accountable for how it failed me, and it failed my family, and it failed the innocent person, it failed the innocent person's family, and it failed everybody. That failure, Jennifer told us, is also devastating for families of murder victims, even when they played no role themselves in identifying the wrongfully convicted person. That's what happened to Andrea Harrison and her father, Dwayne Jones.

10:47Andrea's mother, Jacqueline, was raped and murdered in 1987 when Andrea was just three years old. It was one of the most horrendous crimes. She was brutally raped, tortured. Someone found her body walking their dog. A local man named Larry Peterson spent more than 17 years in prison for the crime before DNA testing proved his innocence, and he was released. Did you know that he was going to be released? Did they tell you? No. No. No. For many, many years, someone was tried, convicted, and put away. Yes, ma 'am. And then you find out that the DNA doesn't match. I mean, you go back into flight or flight.

11:34Yeah. You got scared. Absolutely. Absolutely we did. Can you tell us of what? Who the person, who hurt my mother? What happened to Jackie? Who did it? whoever that person is, they're still out there. But since Larry Peterson's exoneration, with the case now cold, they feel the original crime and victim have become an afterthought. It's always been, what do you think about Mr. Peterson? That is not my charge. I care about Jackie. I'm worried about Jackie. What about Jackie? But even while victims and their families are left reeling in the wake of wrongful convictions, Jennifer knows from her friendship with Ronald Cotton and her work with other exonerees that heady, blissful first day of freedom is just the start of a tough, years-long struggle to rebuild.

12:26Raymond Towler, exonerated after 29 years in prison, 29 years, plays in a band with other exonerees and says he struggles with the lingering stigma and hurt of being charged with such a heinous crime. Tell us, if it's not too painful, what the crime was. It's painful. I'm laughing over it, but it is painful. But it was rape of 11 and 12-year-old kids. When DNA testing finally proved Towler's innocence and won his freedom, He says it was thrilling, but also daunting. The adjustment was difficult. Yeah. I couldn't even really go out the door by myself. You don't feel like you fit in anywhere. At least I did.

13:17Exoneree stories are often filled with egregious police and prosecutorial misconduct. In Chris Ochoa's case, abusive interrogations that led to a false confession to rape and murder. For Howard Dudley, evidence withheld by prosecutors that likely would have cleared him of child sexual abuse, for which he served more than 23 years. I always dream of being there with my kids, see the football game, see them on the basketball court.

13:51Didn't get a chance to see none of that. So I would like for everybody to introduce themselves. So Jennifer came up with a novel idea. So I am Jennifer Thompson. I am a victim survivor. My name is Raymond. Raymond Towler. I'm an exoneree. My name is Loretta. She started an organization called Healing Justice that brings together exonerees My name is Chris. I'm an exoneree. and crime victims My name is Penny. all from different cases I am Tameshia. as well as family members. My brother was an exoneree. My name is Andrea. Healing Justice paid to bring them from around the country to this rented retreat center in Virginia, where they will spend three days sharing stories, playing games, and eating all their meals together.

14:47This is the 17th retreat Healing Justice has done. How effective is it when it's not the same crime? Very effective. There's something powerful in healing when an exoneree can hear what the victim in their case must have felt like. And for crime survivors, it's really healing to also hear about the experiences of exonerees. The biggest thing I lost was trust. Three days of emotional release, rebuilding trust, and healing when we come back.

15:27Hey, it's Jen Hatmaker. Here's what I've learned in midlife. Joy isn't the reward you earn after all the work is done. Joy is the work. That's what this new series on For the Love is all about. The sacred yes. It's choosing delight, rest, and pleasure on purpose. Because saying yes to yourself, that's the thing that finally lets you fill your table with everybody else. Come find your sacred yes with me. Follow and listen to For the Love wherever you get your podcasts.

16:01Jennifer Thompson's goal when she created the nonprofit organization Healing Justice in 2015 was to help all groups harmed by wrongful convictions. Healing Justice now advises prosecutors' offices around the country on dealing more effectively and empathetically with crime victims in exoneration cases. But it's what they call the healing side of their work that is most meaningful to Jennifer. She did coursework in trauma recovery and worked with psychologists to design a program to safely bring together victims of crime and exonerees. They work in small groups on the wounds left behind when the justice system gets it wrong.

16:50There you go. Nice. Remember the breaking and gluing back together of those bowls? Did anybody notice how fast and easy it was to break it and how hard it is to put it back together again? That was just the start of this retreat's opening exercise and perhaps a metaphor for the whole endeavor. So what I'm going to ask you to do now is to paint your broken places with gold. This is actually 24-karat gold paint. She told us it's called kintsugi. Kintsugi. Kintsugi, mm-hmm. What is that? It's a Japanese concept that even in our broken places, we're still beautiful because we're strong at our broken places and we're not disposable.

17:39But before they can paint their real wounds with gold, they have to look hard at the breaks that need repair. I lost part of my heart. So sitting in a circle, using a rock to give whoever holds it the floor, and with a healing justice social worker always present, they talked about their losses. I lost believing in myself. I had so much confidence. I had so much. That first, you know, slam in the doors, everything got real right then, you know. I've seen people suicide, death by a cop just getting beat up, killed. You know, the talk comes back. And I have to keep reminding myself, you know, right here, I'm in the prison right now.

18:31The hardest part for me is hearing what the exonerees went through in prison. It's so hard to hear, but it's so necessary. So what I want to do today is to an actress... Day two of the retreat, Jennifer led an exercise on how the harsh words used against each of them end up becoming internalized. You might have been called a liar. You might have been called a rapist. And those words really do take on a life of their own. I'd like for you to write a letter to yourself from the space of the critical mind, that loop that plays in your head over and over again. You had them write letters. What was the purpose?

19:13have done this before, when they're writing it, they're not happy. And then I had them read it out loud at the circle. They didn't like it. Dear Chris, you failed in life. Why did you confess? I will never have confessed. Why can't you just be quiet? Dear Raymond, you are an angry black man. You will never know love. You will always be a prisoner. And then there was Loretta's. Dear Loretta, you deserve to be raped and beaten. You really don't deserve to be alive. You aren't brave nor strong. You are a failure as a woman and a mother. Loretta, Jennifer told us, faces one of the most excruciating situations for a victim in an exoneration case.

20:07when the DNA clears one man but doesn't identify who the actual assailant was. I'm stuck. She told us she relives the assault daily and can't get the exonerated man's face out of her memory. So even though he was cleared through DNA, his face is still there. Yes. The DNA said it wasn't him.

20:37You didn't believe it? No. I feel guilty.

20:45Because I feel like I did something wrong. So you're having both the feeling that he was the one and that you did something wrong? Yes. Oh, my God, you really are stuck. I don't know who did this. For Andrea Harrison, whose mother's killer also remains unknown, it's a familiar struggle. What was told to me was that he was the person who murdered my mother. And so that was a belief of mine for a lot of years. I can't get that out of my head. On his side of it, I mean, that's sad. It is sad. It is sad. The justice system failed him just like it did us. Until now, Andrea and her father had not been willing to attend a retreat with exonerees present.

21:34Do you think that the exonerated person and the victim are almost pitted against each other when they shouldn't be? They're both victims of the same perpetrator who knows someone's sitting in jail for what he or she did. That's right. At the end of the day, when an innocent person's in prison, a guilty person's not. We should all be concerned about that. And maybe they'd go off and do it many more times. In my case, the person who wasn't caught committed six more first-degree rapes before he was ever apprehended. I just love that we're here working on this. In the circle, after reading the critical letters, Jennifer turned the tables.

22:16So I want you to write a second letter now to yourself from the self-compassion voice, the voice that you would use for the person you love the most. So they rewrote it. They did? They turned it? Oh, yeah. And then they read that out loud in their faces. They smiled when they read it. Dear Raymond, you have a kind heart. You are loved. Raymond, your dreams have come true, and you are free to dream more and create. You are a great mother, grandmother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and so on and on. Keep going. You got this. I've seen you stumble, and I've seen you bounce right back. Dear Loretta, you know that it's never too late to follow your dreams.

23:02You should never stop believing in yourself. You didn't deserve to be hurt by anyone or anything. I will always be your biggest fan and supporter. I love you. That was different. So why is it that we speak to ourselves in a way that we would never speak to the people that we love? Something I need to change, you know, is that it was actually harder to write the happy letter for me. I do believe the good things about myself, but I don't think I really say them to myself enough. And the reality is, if we really want to do good in the world, hating ourselves serves nobody at all. Who's ready? After two emotion-filled days came a scene we weren't expecting.

23:53Catch it! The group gathered together for improv games. Ribbit, ribbit. Acting like animals. Oh, oh, oh. Smiling and laughing. You play a lot of games. The games are just really a way of inviting that child to come back and play again. And if you feel safe, you can pretend like you're a monkey.

24:22You can do all kinds of ridiculous things, and it's okay because everybody else is doing it too. I know, but don't you feel guilty. We noticed a loosening and connecting. Later that night over an art project, the kind of impromptu conversation Jennifer says this retreat is all about. How can somebody look at me and think that I would do something so heinous like that? That's part of the trauma for me. When you hear some of our stories, do you ever, like, blame us? Like me being an exoneree? Yeah. Do you ever see yourself blaming the victims for... You didn't do anything wrong. It's not your fault.

25:13The next morning, as they gathered in the circle for the third and final day... I feel blessed. I feel like a lot of the feathers. The mood had shifted dramatically. I feel open. I feel courageous. I feel nurtured. Even though it's painful to let it out, I think you guys do it because you know it's going to help the next person. And it has. So how did the retreat go? Very enlightening. Very powerful. We took off the mask that everybody sees. What questions did you ask each other? Exonerees to crime victims and back around. I asked what happened to you. When everyone was honest. When everybody was honest, I asked right away.

26:03I shook Mr. Howard's hand. And I feel for this man. and my other two friends back there that are exonerees, I see it now because we only looked from our side of the table. We never seen it from their side. I had that fear even when I came here. I didn't know if I would be coming into a hate because I was exoneree because, you know, nobody believed me for, you know, 30 years. I think we believe it. Thank you. I had questions myself for an exoneree, And I was able to build up the courage to even ask Raymond, because I still hold this guilt. And I was finally able to let it go after talking to him.

26:47I knew he was speaking from his heart. And it took 30 years for him to let me get that guilt off of me. Wow. I thank you. May you keep spreading your love to everyone that needs it. So as the retreat drew to a close, they clasped hands and shared wishes for one another. Penny, may you continue on your journey of healing. What happened in your case that allowed you to heal? I think I'll always be healing. But I think what has helped me more than anything is the relationships I built along the way with people that have been harmed and hurt, just like me. Because you're helping other people. Jennifer, may you always be in our lives, and may you always be courageous.

27:48I'm helping other people, but what they don't realize is they're also helping me.

27:56I didn't know that movie. They're healing. They are healing. and I want to walk with him on that journey. Woo-wee! A bit of good news. Three of the exonerees have gotten married since our story first aired. Congratulations to Howard Dudley, Chris Ochoa, and Raymond Towler.