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Jennifer Thompson was a college student when she was brutally raped. During the attack, she tried to memorize what the man looked like so she could identify him later. She identified Ronald Cotton as the man who raped her, and he spent 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Also, LaMonte Armstrong was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his elderly next door neighbor. He spent the next 17 years fighting for his freedom and was exonerated last summer and is still trying to negotiate life in a world he was removed from for years.

The American Dance Festival is entering its 80th year as performances begin in Durham. 

The national festival opens Thursday at the Durham Performing Arts Center.  This year's celebration includes dance companies from as far away as Argentina, Ireland and Taiwan. 

“The worst thing you can be is a sex offender because it’s dirt that you can’t wash off.”

Those words were spoken by James Waller in an interview with WUNC at the Innocence Network Conference in Charlotte in April. Waller spent decades in prison and on parole after being wrongfully convicted of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy. When he went to jail, he was 23. When he was exonerated in 2007, he was 50.

State lawmakers in the House have begun to debate their budget proposal.  Republican representative Nelson Dollar told his fellow lawmakers the budget plan is a good one.

"We are pleased to have a new governor here in Raleigh. We think that the spirit of reform has come to our state capitol. We believe our budget has caught the winds of reform and is moving us forward," said Dollar.

Following a two-year investigation by the SBI, the Forsyth County district attorney says it appears that about 20 possible crimes were not reported by local school officials to law enforcement. D.A. Jim O'Neill called on the State to examine reporting practices by the school district. The investigation turned up about 20 cases that were eventually prosecuted but not properly reported. The district maintains the lack of reporting was a misinterpretation of the law and not malicious.

It might not be much to look at, but in the history of the World Wide Web,  this image is a landmark. It's the earliest web page found so far, according to scientists at the nuclear research group CERN (the same organization that developed the Large Hadron Collider) who are trying to locate the genesis of the Web.  The page was brought to their attention by Paul Jones, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

When Christopher Scott walked out of the Dallas courthouse a free man after 12 years of wrongful imprisonment, Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins declared that it might be the biggest case yet for his office.  Not only had they exonerated two people (the other was Claude Simmons Jr.) involved in the same murder case, but they did it without DNA evidence. Watkins said that the case would likely cause DA offices across the country to take non-DNA exoneration requests a little more seriously.

Jason Puracal was working in Nicaragua when he was wrongfully convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime.  He was sentenced to 22 years in one of the worst prisons in the country.  His sister Janis led the charge for his release.

Also in this show, a forensic DNA expert who has devoted himself to using new DNA technology to free the innocent. 

Listen at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m., or online here.

Wildlife researchers have noticed a slight drop in the number of pups being born to the state's native red wolf population.  According to the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, 34 wolf pups in seven litters were found in eastern North Carolina habitats.  That's down by an average of seven pups over the last three years.