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

Summary

Podcast Summary: 60 Minutes – July 19, 2026: “Healing Justice, Flight of the Monarchs”

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Episode Overview

This episode of 60 Minutes features two powerful stories:

1. "Healing Justice" (Leslie Stahl): An emotional, deeply reported look at a unique effort to help both crime victims and those exonerated after wrongful convictions find healing—together. The story follows Jennifer Thompson, herself both crime survivor and key advocate, as she brings together victims, exonerees, and their families for difficult but transformative gatherings.

2. "Flight of the Monarchs" (Anderson Cooper): A journey to the mountains of Mexico to witness the incredible migration of monarch butterflies and explore ongoing efforts to preserve this threatened marvel of nature.

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Part 1: Healing Justice

Main Theme

A unique, trauma-informed approach to healing the overlapping wounds caused by wrongful convictions, led by Jennifer Thompson—a rape survivor who herself misidentified an innocent man.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Lasting Damage of Wrongful Convictions

• Not just one victim: Both crime survivors and those wrongfully imprisoned (and their families) endure lifelong trauma.
• Quote: “A wrongful conviction doesn't hurt like a person. It's not just Raymond Towler got hurt like his whole family got shrapnel and the victims got shrapnel, and the community received shrapnel...” —Jennifer Thompson (04:27)

Jennifer Thompson’s Story

• Raped in 1984, Thompson identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker; he was sentenced to life, but later exonerated via DNA after 11 years.
• She describes the “suffocating, debilitating shame” after learning the truth (05:48).
• Thompson took action—personally apologizing to Cotton and educating about wrongful IDs.

Overlooked Victims: Crime Survivors

• Society’s attention: When someone is exonerated, victim-survivors often feel abandoned, left to deal with both the crime and their mistaken testimony.
• “The victims have been forgotten.” —Jennifer Thompson (06:48)
• Other victims (Tamisha, Penny, Loretta) describe being blamed and ostracized after exonerations (08:33).
  • “I felt so bad for him because I felt like I sent this man to prison. ... People were saying that I needed to go to prison.” —Tamisha Carrington (08:18, 08:44)

The Fallibility of Memory & Lineups

• Memory science shows witnesses often mistakenly ID innocent people, especially if the actual perpetrator isn’t included in the lineup (09:28).

Families of Murder Victims: Another Layer

• Andrea Harrison and her father recount the pain after learning the man convicted of her mother’s murder was innocent, and the real killer is unknown. (11:48)
• “It's always been, what do you think about Mr. Peterson? That is not my charge. I care about Jackie. ... What about Jackie?” —Andrea Harrison (12:26)

Lingering Stigma & Difficulty for Exonerees

• Released but often shadowed by public suspicion, exonerees like Raymond Towler and Chris Ochoa struggle with belonging and trust (13:39, 13:47).
• Police and prosecutorial misconduct are common in these cases.

The Healing Justice Approach

• Retreat structure: Victims, exonerees, and family members (from unrelated cases) attend 3-day, psychologist-facilitated retreats.
  • They break and repair bowls (a metaphor for trauma and resilience).
  • Exercises (like Kintsugi) embrace brokenness as part of the journey.
  • Group circles with a “talking rock” allow sharing of losses and pain (18:46–19:10).
  • Letters from the ‘critical mind’ (self-judgment) are written and shared (19:41–20:41), then followed by letters rooted in self-compassion (23:16–24:13).

Powerful Moments & Quotes

• On self-blame and stuckness:
  • “Even though he was cleared through DNA, his face is still there?” —Leslie Stahl
  • “Yes. The DNA said it wasn't him.” —Loretta (21:29)
  • “I feel guilty. Cause I feel like I did something wrong.” (21:39)
• On the shared damage:
  • “Do you think that the exonerated person and the victim are almost pitted against each other when they shouldn't be? They're both victims...?” —Leslie Stahl (22:44)
  • “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.” —Jennifer Thompson (22:50)
• On forgiveness and transformation:
  • “I had questions myself for an exoneree, and...I was finally able to let it go. After talking to him, I knew he was speaking from his heart, and it took 30 years for him to let me get that guilt off of me.” —Loretta (27:33)
  • “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.” —Jennifer Thompson (28:24)

Emotional Highs

• The laughter and playfulness found through improv and games after so much heaviness, signaling new beginnings (25:11–25:28).
  • “The games are just really a way of inviting that child to come back and play again.” —Jennifer Thompson (25:11)

Outcomes

• Participants describe feeling lighter, more open, and connected after the retreat (26:19–26:42).
• Healing is ongoing, but the shared space is transformative for all involved.

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Key Timestamps

• 04:27 – "Shrapnel" analogy of wrongful convictions
• 05:48 – Thompson on shame after misidentification
• 06:48 – Forgotten victims when exonerations happen
• 09:28 – Memory and mistaken identification
• 13:47 – Exoneree struggles post-release
• 17:56 – The Kintsugi “broken bowls” exercise
• 19:41–20:41 – Reading critical letters aloud
• 21:14–22:01 – Loretta’s struggle accepting the DNA evidence
• 23:16–24:13 – Letters of self-compassion
• 25:11 – Improv games as part of healing
• 27:33 – Loretta describes letting go of guilt
• 28:24 – Jennifer Thompson on ongoing healing through relationships

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Part 2: Flight of the Monarchs

Main Theme

A visual and scientific glimpse into the awe-inspiring annual migration of monarch butterflies from Canada/USA to Mexico—what we know, and what's at risk.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Journey

• Every year, tens of millions of monarchs migrate up to 3,000 miles from the northern US and Canada to the mountains of Michoacán, Mexico (30:03–31:08).
• Their population in Mexico is down 70% in 30 years; habitat is critical.

A Magical Sight

• Monarchs cluster so densely on trees that “the branches are all pointing toward the ground.” —Bill Whitaker (31:48)

• Initially camouflaged as “clumps of dead leaves,” with sunlight, trees “explode” with orange as the butterflies wake up (33:44–34:20).

• “You can actually hear the sound of butterfly wings.” —Anderson Cooper (34:44)

The Super Generation

• Most monarchs live about a month—but a “super generation” born in late summer can postpone reproduction and live up to nine months, making the entire journey (35:22–36:14).
• Their endurance and navigational skills remain mysterious and remarkable.

Navigation & Instinct

• Monarchs have internal circadian clocks and magnetic compasses (36:25).
• “You're talking about multiple generations who all have this exact same instinct and know where to go and all go to the exact same spot.” —Anderson Cooper (37:15)
• “That's one of the most magical things that can happen in the natural world. How do they know?” —Bill Whitaker (37:24)

Conservation & Threats

• Illegal logging shrunk their reserves from 45 to 4.5 acres, but active reforestation and local partnerships are helping (37:31).
• Monarch Watch and others encourage planting milkweed, vital to caterpillars, now scarcer due to herbicides and GMO crops (40:09–41:04).

Tagging Butterflies

• Volunteers across the US tag monarchs for tracking; only 20% survive the trip, and their tags provide vital migration data (39:27–41:18).

Cultural Connection

• Monarchs arrive during Mexico’s Day of the Dead. Local communities believe the butterflies represent the spirits of departed loved ones (42:24).
  • “Maybe we are actually...helping someone's ancestor fly back.” —Anderson Cooper (42:41)
  • “Yes, indeed. So it's very magical.” —Bill Whitaker (42:41)

Recent Improvements

• Recent conservation gains: the area covered by monarch colonies in Mexico more than doubled last year (41:38).

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Key Timestamps

• 31:48 – The branches bend with the weight of clustered butterflies
• 33:44–34:20 – Monarchs take flight in “snow globe” effect
• 36:14 – Description of the “super generation”
• 37:24 – The mystery of inherited migration routes
• 40:09–41:04 – Monarch Watch and milkweed conservation
• 42:24–42:41 – Monarchs as spirits of the dead; cultural meaning
• 41:38, 43:02 – Conservation progress and positive trends

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Notable Quotes

• “It's like a snow globe of monarchs.” —Court Whelan (35:10)
• “It's resilient. But that resilience is being tested.” —Anderson Cooper (40:09)
• “Monarchs have got charisma.” —Chip Taylor (39:53)
• “Maybe we are actually...helping someone's ancestor fly back.” —Anderson Cooper (42:41)
• “Who knows? ...So it's very magical.” —Bill Whitaker (42:41)

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Conclusion

This episode of 60 Minutes delivers profound reporting: an exploration of the complex grief and hope at the intersection of justice and memory (“Healing Justice”) and a wondrous look at monarch butterflies’ perilous, almost mystical migration (“Flight of the Monarchs”), each highlighting resilience, vulnerability, and the power of collective healing—whether between victims and exonerees, or through cross-border environmental cooperation.

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Table of Notable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker(s) | Notable Quote or Moment | |--------------|-----------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------| | 04:27 | Jennifer Thompson | “A wrongful conviction...whole family got shrapnel...” | | 05:48 | Jennifer Thompson | “Suffocating, debilitating shame.” | | 08:44 | Tamisha Carrington | “People were saying I needed to go to prison.” | | 13:47 | Chris Ochoa | “You don't feel like you fit in anywhere.” | | 17:56 | Jennifer Thompson | “Did anybody notice how fast and easy it was to break it...?” | | 21:29 | Loretta | “Even though he was cleared…his face is still there?” | | 23:34 | Raymond Towler | “Dear Raymond, you have a kind heart. You are loved.” | | 25:11 | Jennifer Thompson | “The games are just really a way of inviting that child to come back and play again.” | | 31:48 | Bill Whitaker | “There are so many of them here that they actually bend the trees…” | | 34:44 | Anderson Cooper | “You can actually hear the sound of butterfly wings.” | | 35:10 | Court Whelan | “It's like a snow globe of monarchs.” | | 37:24 | Bill Whitaker | “That's one of the most magical things...” | | 39:53 | Chip Taylor | “Monarchs have got charisma.” | | 42:41 | Anderson Cooper/Bill Whitaker| “Maybe we are actually...helping someone's ancestor fly back.” |

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For deeper context, listen to portions starting at 04:00 (Healing Justice) and 30:00 (Flight of the Monarchs).

Transcript

[Chris Ochoa]

All new drinks are now at McDonald's with refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with popping boba. To crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry flavors and cold foam. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire six? All new drinks are here now at McDonald's.

[Bill Whitaker]

Refreshers contain caffeine.

[Penny]

Good job.

[Leslie Stahl]

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.

[Jennifer Thompson]

And then I'm going to tie my string.

[Leslie Stahl]

Jennifer has created something called Healing Justice, a program that brings together crime victims, family members and innocent men.

[Chris Ochoa]

Dear Chris, you failed in life. Why did you confess? I would never have confessed.

[Andrea Harrison]

Why can't you just be quiet?

[Raymond Towler]

You are an angry black man. You will never know love. You will always be a prisoner.

[Anderson Cooper]

It'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. Towers of monarch butterflies, orange. Twisting, soaring. And one of the most remarkable things we've ever seen.

[Leslie Stahl]

I'm leslie stahl.

[Anderson Cooper]

John I'm john wertheim. I'm anderson cooper.

[Bill Whitaker]

I'm bill whitaker. Those stories tonight on 60 minutes.

[Leslie Stahl]

Seventeen 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.

[Jennifer Thompson]

What I'm going to ask you to do is turn your bowl up upside down.

[Leslie Stahl]

What we saw on day one of a multi day group retreat Jennifer Thompson is leading. Sure didn't look like healing. 10 men and women plus an observer.

[Jennifer Thompson]

Nice job, Leslie.

[Leslie Stahl]

Smashing bowls with a hammer.

[Chris Ochoa]

Nice.

[Jennifer Thompson]

So what I'm going to ask you to do now is I'm going to ask you to repair it.

[Leslie Stahl]

It was quite something to realize the 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.

[Penny]

Anyone need a little blob of glue?

[Leslie Stahl]

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.

[Tamisha Carrington]

Mm.

[Leslie Stahl]

You said they're bombs. Mm.

[Jennifer Thompson]

A wrongful conviction doesn't hurt like a person. It's not just Raymond Towler 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. There's just so many people in a wrongful conviction case. I think it's hundreds of people for every single wrongful conviction case that are hurt.

[Leslie Stahl]

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 knifepoint. 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. But 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.

[Jennifer Thompson]

Shame, shame, terrible shame. Suffocating, debilitating shame.

[Leslie Stahl]

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.

[Court Whelan]

Finally, we're free.

[Leslie Stahl]

With more than 3,800 freed so far.

[Bill Whitaker]

I'm free.

[Leslie Stahl]

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?

[Jennifer Thompson]

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.

[Tamisha Carrington]

I know.

[Raymond Towler]

I know.

[Jennifer Thompson]

It's the day they've been dreaming. They've prayed for it. 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. This is another nightmare on top of a nightmare. The victims have been forgotten.

[Leslie Stahl]

Victims, she says, like Tamisha Carrington, artisan, who was 12 years old when a man broke into her bedroom and raped her.

[Tamisha Carrington]

He grabbed me by my throat and put a knife to my throat and said if I screamed, he was going to kill me.

[Penny]

And my mom grabbed me from behind, put me in a chokehold.

[Leslie Stahl]

Hannie Bernson, sexually assaulted at age 36 as she went for an afternoon run along the shore of Lake Michigan.

[Penny]

And he said, now I'm going to kill you. Now you're going to die.

[Leslie Stahl]

Ann Loretta Zillinger White, who was raped at age 15 on the way school one morning after she'd missed her bus.

[Loretta]

It'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.

[Leslie Stahl]

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.

[Tamisha Carrington]

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 gonna try to come out and kill me. I just. I shut down.

[Leslie Stahl]

Did people blame you?

[Penny]

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.

[Tamisha Carrington]

They were saying that I needed to go to prison. That you needed to go? Yes, that I intentionally sent the wrong man to prison.

[Anderson Cooper]

Oh, my gosh.

[Tamisha Carrington]

Yeah, it was bad.

[Leslie Stahl]

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.

[Anderson Cooper]

Now, you know, now after we've talked about probably not to pick anyone.

[Leslie Stahl]

No, no, actually, I actually know who it is, because if I had come upon that, I think it's this guy.

[Andrea Harrison]

Am I wrong?

[Leslie Stahl]

Am I wrong?

[Chris Ochoa]

Yeah, I'm wrong. Yeah, it's none of them.

[Leslie Stahl]

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. In Jennifer's case and Tamisha and Penny's, the real perpetrators, revealed by DNA years later, had not been in the original Lineups.

[Jennifer Thompson]

Twenty years later, when they come to me and say, by the way, I can't imagine the person who raped you never went to prison. And the person we thought is innocent, Siya. 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.

[Leslie Stahl]

Deliberate.

[Jennifer Thompson]

Why would a crime survivor. Why would a victim want the wrong person to go to prison? That doesn't make any sense at all.

[Leslie Stahl]

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.

[Jennifer Thompson]

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.

[Leslie Stahl]

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. Andrea's mother, Jacqueline, was raped and murdered in 1987 when Andrea was just three years old.

[Andrea Harrison]

It was one of the most horrendous crimes. She was brutally raped, tortured. Someone found her body walking their dog.

[Leslie Stahl]

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?

[Chris Ochoa]

No, no, no.

[Leslie Stahl]

For many, many years, someone was tried, convicted, and put away.

[Chris Ochoa]

Yes, ma'.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly Evergreen Virtual Academy announcer)]

Am.

[Leslie Stahl]

And then you find out that the DNA doesn't match.

[Andrea Harrison]

I mean, you go back into flight or flight.

[Chris Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Leslie Stahl]

You got scared.

[Andrea Harrison]

Absolutely.

[Chris Ochoa]

Absolutely, we did.

[Leslie Stahl]

Can you tell us of what?

[Loretta]

Who?

[Andrea Harrison]

The person who hurt my mother. What happened to Jackie, who did it. Whoever that person is, they're still there.

[Leslie Stahl]

But since Larry Peterson's exoneration, with the case now cold, they feel the original crime and victim have become an afterthought.

[Andrea Harrison]

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?

[Leslie Stahl]

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 only freedom. Raymond 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.

[Raymond Towler]

It's painful. I know I'm laughing over it, but it is painful. But it was rape of 11 and 12 year old kids.

[Leslie Stahl]

When DNA testing finally proved Toler's innocence and won his freedom, he says it was thrilling but also daunting. The adjustment was difficult.

[Raymond Towler]

Yeah, I couldn't even really go out the door by myself.

[Chris Ochoa]

You don't feel like you fit in anywhere. At least I did.

[Leslie Stahl]

Exoneree's 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.

[Raymond Towler]

I always dream of being there with my kids, see the football game, see them on the basketball court. Didn't get a chance to see none of that.

[Jennifer Thompson]

So I would like for everybody to introduce themselves.

[Leslie Stahl]

So Jennifer came up with a novel idea.

[Jennifer Thompson]

So I am Jennifer Thompson. I am a victim survivor.

[Raymond Towler]

My name is Raymond. Raymond Towner. I'm an exoneree.

[Loretta]

My name is Loretta.

[Leslie Stahl]

She started an organization called Healing justice that brings together exonerees.

[Chris Ochoa]

My name is Chris.

[Raymond Towler]

I'm an exoneree.

[Leslie Stahl]

And crime victims.

[Penny]

My name is Penny.

[Leslie Stahl]

All from different cases. I am Tamisha. As well as family members. My brother was an exoneree.

[Andrea Harrison]

My name is Andrea.

[Leslie Stahl]

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.

[Chris Ochoa]

That journal keeps changing up and eating

[Leslie Stahl]

all their meals together. This is the 17th retreat healing justice has done. How effective is it when it's not the same crime?

[Jennifer Thompson]

Very effective. There's something powerful and 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.

[Chris Ochoa]

The biggest thing I lost was trust.

[Leslie Stahl]

Three days of emotional release. Rebuilding trust and healing. When we come back,

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly Evergreen Virtual Academy announcer)]

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[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.

[Leslie Stahl]

Jennifer 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. Remember the breaking and gluing back together of those bowls?

[Jennifer Thompson]

Did anybody notice how fast and easy it was to break it and how hard it is to put it back together again?

[Leslie Stahl]

That was just the start of this retreat's opening exercise and perhaps a metaphor for the whole endeavor.

[Jennifer Thompson]

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.

[Leslie Stahl]

She told us. It's called Kintsugi. Kintsugi.

[Jennifer Thompson]

Kintsugi.

[Loretta]

Mm.

[Leslie Stahl]

What is that?

[Jennifer Thompson]

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.

[Leslie Stahl]

But before they can paint their real wounds with gold, they have to look hard at the breaks that need repair.

[Andrea Harrison]

I lost part of my heart.

[Leslie Stahl]

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.

[Loretta]

I lost believing in myself. I had so much confidence. I had so much that first, you

[Raymond Towler]

know, slam on the doors, everything got real right then, you know, I seen people suicide, death by cop, just getting beat up, killed. You know, it all comes back. And I have to keep reminding myself you know, right here, I'm in prison right now.

[Penny]

The hardest part for me is hearing what the exonerees went through in prison. It's so hard to hear, but it's so necessary.

[Jennifer Thompson]

So what I want to do today

[Leslie Stahl]

on day two of the retreat, Jennifer led an exercise on how the harsh words used against each of them end up becoming internalized.

[Jennifer Thompson]

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.

[Leslie Stahl]

You had them write letters. What was the purpose?

[Jennifer Thompson]

I've done this before. When they're writing it, they're not happy. And then I had them read it out loud to the circle. They didn't like it.

[Chris Ochoa]

Dear Chris, you failed in life. Why did you confess? I will never have confessed.

[Andrea Harrison]

Why can't you just be quiet?

[Raymond Towler]

Dear Raymond, you are an angry black man. You will never know love. You will always be a prisoner.

[Leslie Stahl]

And then there was Loretta's.

[Loretta]

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.

[Leslie Stahl]

Loretta, Jennifer told us, faces one of the most excruciating situations for a victim in an exoneration case, when the DNA clears one man, but doesn't identify who the actual assailant was.

[Loretta]

I'm stuck.

[Leslie Stahl]

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?

[Loretta]

Yes. The DNA said it wasn't him.

[Leslie Stahl]

You didn't believe it?

[Loretta]

No. I feel guilty. Cause I feel like I did something wrong.

[Leslie Stahl]

So you're having both the feeling that he was the one and that you did something wrong?

[Loretta]

Yes.

[Leslie Stahl]

Oh, my God. You really are stuck.

[Loretta]

I don't know who did this for

[Leslie Stahl]

Andrea Harrison, whose mother's killer also remains unknown. It's a familiar struggle.

[Andrea Harrison]

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.

[Leslie Stahl]

On his side of it.

[Chris Ochoa]

Mm.

[Leslie Stahl]

I mean, that's sad.

[Andrea Harrison]

It is sad.

[Raymond Towler]

It is sad.

[Andrea Harrison]

The justice system failed him just like it did us.

[Leslie Stahl]

Until now, Andrea and her father had not been willing to attend a retreat with exonerees present. Do 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 sitting in jail for what he or she did?

[Jennifer Thompson]

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.

[Leslie Stahl]

And maybe they go off and do it many more times.

[Jennifer Thompson]

In my case, the person who wasn't caught committed six more first degree rapes before he was ever apprehended.

[Raymond Towler]

I just love that we're here working

[Leslie Stahl]

on this in the circle. After reading the critical letters, Jennifer turned the tables.

[Jennifer Thompson]

So 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.

[Leslie Stahl]

They did. They turned it.

[Jennifer Thompson]

Oh yeah. And then they read that out loud in their faces. They smiled when they read it.

[Raymond Towler]

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.

[Tamisha Carrington]

You are a great mother, grandmother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and so on and on. Keep going. You got this.

[Jennifer Thompson]

Yes.

[Chris Ochoa]

I've seen you stumble and I've seen you bounce right back.

[Loretta]

Dear Loretta, you know that it's never too late to follow your dreams. You 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.

[Jennifer Thompson]

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?

[Raymond Towler]

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.

[Jennifer Thompson]

And the reality is, if we really want to do good in the world, hating ourselves serves nobody at all. Who's ready?

[Leslie Stahl]

After two emotion filled days came a scene we weren't expecting.

[Jennifer Thompson]

Catch it.

[Leslie Stahl]

The group gathered together for improv games. Ribbit, ribbit. Acting like animals, smiling and laughing. You play a lot of games.

[Jennifer Thompson]

The games are just really a way of inviting that child to come back and play again. If you feel safe, you can pretend like you're a monkey. You can do all kinds of ridiculous things and it's okay because everybody else is doing it too.

[Chris Ochoa]

Hello. But don't you feel guilty?

[Leslie Stahl]

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

[Raymond Towler]

somebody look at me and think that I would do something so heinous like that? That's part of the trauma for me.

[Loretta]

When you hear some of our stories, do you ever, like, blame us?

[Raymond Towler]

Like me being an exoneree?

[Loretta]

Yeah. Do you ever see yourself blaming the victims for.

[Raymond Towler]

You didn't do anything wrong. It's not your fault.

[Leslie Stahl]

The next morning, as they gathered in the circle for the third and final day.

[Penny]

I feel blessed.

[Raymond Towler]

I feel light as a feather in the fire.

[Leslie Stahl]

The mood had shifted dramatically.

[Andrea Harrison]

I feel open.

[Loretta]

I feel courageous.

[Raymond Towler]

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.

[Leslie Stahl]

So how did the retreat go?

[Chris Ochoa]

Very enlightening, very powerful.

[Loretta]

We took off the mask that everybody sees.

[Leslie Stahl]

What questions did you ask each other? Exonerees to crime victims and back around.

[Andrea Harrison]

I asked, what happened to you?

[Tamisha Carrington]

And everyone was honest, and everybody was honest.

[Chris Ochoa]

I asked right away. I 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.

[Raymond Towler]

I had that fear even when I came here. I didn't know if I would be coming into hate because I was exoneree. Because, you know, nobody believed me for, you know, 30 years.

[Tamisha Carrington]

I think we believe it.

[Raymond Towler]

Thank you.

[Loretta]

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, I knew he was speaking from his heart, and it took 30 years for him to let me get that guilt off of me.

[Leslie Stahl]

Wow.

[Loretta]

I thank you. May you keep spreading your love to everyone that needs it.

[Leslie Stahl]

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?

[Jennifer Thompson]

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.

[Leslie Stahl]

Because you're helping other people,

[Raymond Towler]

Jennifer. May you always be in our lives, and may you always be courageous as you are.

[Jennifer Thompson]

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

[Raymond Towler]

I didn't know that move.

[Leslie Stahl]

They're healing.

[Jennifer Thompson]

They are healing. And I want to walk with them on that journey? Woo wee.

[Leslie Stahl]

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.

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[Anderson Cooper]

remarkable and mysterious migrations in the natural world occurs every spring from Mexico to the United States. Tens of millions of monarch butterflies make the epic aerial journey home. They've spent the winter hanging out in trees in a forest on a remote mountain in Mexico, resting up after flying all the way from Canada and the northern US where they were born. It's believed monarchs have been making this journey for thousands of years, but there's a lot fewer of them than there used to be. The population in Mexico has declined 70% in the last 30 years. We arrived there last year just in time to watch the monarchs emerge from their slumber and begin to take flight. The monarchs come to these mountains in Michoacan in central Mexico, starting in late October. Do you still get excited going up to see them every time?

[Bill Whitaker]

There's no substitute.

[Anderson Cooper]

One of our guides, Jorge Rickards, is the director of the non profit Rural Wildlife Fund in Mexico.

[Bill Whitaker]

We're going to leave the horses walk a little bit very, very carefully and very quietly so we won't disturb the butterflies.

[Anderson Cooper]

The monarchs roost in patches of fir and pine trees 11,000ft off. There are some 66 million of them here, but it's hard to see them at first. There are what appear to be clumps of dead leaves hanging from sagging branches. But those are butterflies, tens of thousands of them clustered together in trees all around. There's so many of them on the branches of the trees that the branches are all pointing toward the ground.

[Bill Whitaker]

Imagine, imagine the likeness of a butterfly. And there are so many of them here that they actually bend the trees and they like the firs because they have so many little leaves or spicules, so there's lots of surface to cling onto.

[Anderson Cooper]

The monarchs are in a kind of hibernation. On the way here. They've fattened up on nectar, which helps them survive and rest through the Long winter months. The climate on this mountain is ideal. The canopy of trees protects the butterflies from storms. And though the air is cool, it's relatively humid, so they stay hydrated. The clusters are so drab when you're looking at them because they have their wings closed in.

[Bill Whitaker]

Many butterflies on the underside is drab or less lightly colored, and that happens in nature a lot, so it's not very inviting. It wouldn't be a predator.

[Anderson Cooper]

Why are we whispering?

[Bill Whitaker]

They are very sensitive to sound. They are also sensitive to CO2, so the less we talk, the better. They relate that with a predator as

[Anderson Cooper]

other mammals, so they can sense, like a mouse breathing or a bird that is right on the forest floor. All around us, monarchs litter the ground. But most are not dead. They've just fallen from trees during the night and their muscles are too cold for them to fly. Cup them in your hands, you can revive them with your breath.

[Bill Whitaker]

They need a certain temperature to get their wing muscles back. They are very, very vulnerable when they're on the floor. And the birds know that and the mice know that. That's almost ready. There you go.

[Anderson Cooper]

Come on, little buddy.

[Bill Whitaker]

Maybe a little more. There you go. He likes you.

[Anderson Cooper]

When the sun begins to hit the trees, flashes of orange appear. The monarchs are warming and slowly opening their wings.

[Court Whelan]

Really, as the day warms up, we're going to see more activity.

[Anderson Cooper]

Court Whelan has been bringing tour groups here and photographing monarchs for more than 20 years. He shows us a spot where some butterflies have taken flight. Then after a few minutes, suddenly the air is filled with them. This is extraordinary.

[Court Whelan]

This is it. This is what it's all about. This is. Nature knows when to put on a show, huh? And how to put on a show.

[Anderson Cooper]

Why have they all now just suddenly taken off?

[Court Whelan]

So it's a warm day, we're getting a lot of sunlight, so we're just ramping up, ramping up.

[Anderson Cooper]

I mean, what's insane is it's not just over here, it's over there. It's over there.

[Court Whelan]

I mean, it's extraordinary. But, yeah, it's all the heat and it's all the sun.

[Anderson Cooper]

You can actually hear the sound of butterfly wings.

[Court Whelan]

Yeah.

[Anderson Cooper]

Let's just be quiet for a.

[Jen Hatmaker]

Look at that.

[Tamisha Carrington]

Look.

[Bill Whitaker]

Look at that.

[Anderson Cooper]

Oh, my gosh.

[Raymond Towler]

Whoa.

[Court Whelan]

This is about as good as it possibly gets. It's like a snow globe of monarchs.

[Anderson Cooper]

You got a butterfly on you.

[Court Whelan]

Oh, there we go.

[Anderson Cooper]

It's still something of a mystery how these monarchs manage to get here. Most only live about a month. They spend their Short lives, eating and mating, and females lay eggs. But in late summer and early fall, what's called a super generation of monarchs appear. Hatched as caterpillars. They transform into chrysalises and then after a week or two, emerge as butterflies. And that's when they do something extraordinary. With winter coming, they sense the shorter days and changing temperatures and suppress a key reproductive hormone, a process called diapause, which helps them conserve their energy and live up to nine months, nine times longer than most monarchs. It's crazy that there's this super generation of monarchs that can make it all the way and then the rest would die off after a month.

[Bill Whitaker]

What is amazing is how they detonate this process of not developing sexual organs, but using that energy for the flight.

[Anderson Cooper]

Monarchs born west of the Rockies stay there and migrate shorter distances. It's this super generation born in Canada and east of the Rockies in the northern United States that flies to Mexico. Hundreds of millions of them join up on a journey of some 3,000 miles, which can take them three months or longer. To help them find their way, Monarchs have circadian clocks in their antennae and navigate using internal compasses that respond to the position of the sun and the earth's magnetic field. Why are they coming here?

[Bill Whitaker]

Well, that's a big mystery. Maybe it's a prehistoric root. Maybe it was determined by geographical conditions in terms of topography. Maybe it had to do with climate.

[Anderson Cooper]

You're talking about multiple generations who all have this exact same instinct and know where to go and all go to the exact same spot.

[Bill Whitaker]

That's one of the most magical things that can happen in the natural world. How do they know?

[Anderson Cooper]

The monarchs were discovered by researchers on this mountain range in 1975, and the Mexican government declared the area a Federal Reserve 11 years later. But for decades, illegal logging threatened the butterflies roosting spots, which once covered as much as 45 acres. It's now down to four and a half. World Wildlife Fund has spent years trying to combat the destruction, assessing the health of the forest, measuring the size of butterfly colonies and planting trees. They've also worked with local communities and indigenous groups to protect the land and help them profit from tourism. The good news is the forest is rebounding because it's just so unusual to see this.

[Court Whelan]

It's like almost an optical illusion because everything's beating at this weird frequency. It's like the whole world is kind of pulsing.

[Anderson Cooper]

So what, what are they doing here?

[Court Whelan]

Yeah. So this is kind of a classic mud puddling of monarch butterflies, so.

[Anderson Cooper]

Mud puddling?

[Court Whelan]

Yeah, mud puddling. It's a real scientific term. So they're mainly after hydration, but butterflies are known to need some trace elements like salts and whatnot. And it doesn't look like much, but just this little bit of water in this mud puddle is enough for them to get some water. And then what will happen is they'll return to the roost before evening.

[Anderson Cooper]

After about four months in Mexico, this super generation of monarchs are near the end of their long life cycle. They're finally ready to mate and migrate north to lay their eggs. They'll die before they can make it back to where they were born. And their offspring might not live long enough to get there either. But future generations will. And there's an army of people trying to help them.

[Jennifer Thompson]

Oh, you got one.

[Anderson Cooper]

In Kansas, volunteers come out to catch and tag monarchs so scientists can track their migration.

[Court Whelan]

Good job.

[Loretta]

Boo.

[Anderson Cooper]

They're recruited by Chip Taylor, an 87 year old ecologist who's been fascinated by monarchs since he was a child. There's over 100,000 species of butterflies and moths, but pretty much the only one people know are monarchs. What is it about monarch butterflies? Well, monarchs have got charisma. I mean, wait, wait a minute. Monarch butterflies have charisma?

[Leslie Stahl]

Well, yeah, they have charisma because they are accessible.

[Anderson Cooper]

They're large, they're beautiful, they're slow, you can catch them. It involves Canada, involves Mexico. Taylor founded a non profit called Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas 30 years ago.

[Chris Ochoa]

Nice.

[Anderson Cooper]

And so far it's helped tag more than 2 million of them. How do you tag a butterfly that's so delicate? This is a rough butterfly and it has to go thousands of miles. So it's a pretty tough butterfly. It's resilient, it's resilient. But that resilience is being tested. Monarchs returning to the US need milkweed plants to lay their eggs on. It's the only source of food their newly born caterpillars will eat. But milkweed is now hard to find. It's been virtually eradicated on agricultural land because of genetically modified corn and soybean crops that allow for mass spraying of herbicides. Monarch Watch encourages people to plant milkweed in their gardens and on public land, creating what they call monarch way stations. 50,000 of them have been planted by so far in Mexico. Those efforts have gotten noticed.

[Bill Whitaker]

They are taking water.

[Anderson Cooper]

Eduardo Rendon, head of World Wildlife Fund's Monarch butterfly program, showed us a tag he recently found. So this is one of the tags from Monarch Watch from Chip Taylor.

[Court Whelan]

Exactly.

[Bill Whitaker]

I find maybe 12 meters from over here. Yeah. I was measuring the colony, and then I see the ground and I find this stack. But it's the only way that we can to prove that monarchs from United States and Canada come here to overwinter.

[Anderson Cooper]

Less than 20% of the monarchs that head out on this miraculous migration actually make it to the mountains of Michoacan. Scientists say worsening storms and rising temperatures kill off many, though this past year, the number of monuments that survived the trip nearly doubled. It was particularly welcome news in Mexico, where the butterfly's arrival in late October coincides with a deeply spiritual celebration. What's known as the Day of the Dead. That's when many here believe the souls of family and friends who died returned to visit their loved ones. And so that's why the butterflies are returning as well. Local people believe that the monarchs are the returning spirits of.

[Bill Whitaker]

That is correct.

[Loretta]

Of the dead.

[Bill Whitaker]

That is correct, yes. So who knows? Maybe we are actually. You are reviving. You're helping someone's ancestor fly back. Yes, indeed. So it's very magical.

[Anderson Cooper]

Since our story aired, scientists tell us conservation measures are going in the right direction. One survey found that the monarchs covered more than double the forest area during this year's hibernation season. That's more than 7 acres of Mexican forest covered in butterflies.

[Leslie Stahl]

Anderson Cooper's trip to see butterflies years in the making. Not Quite so [e-mail] hey, gang, it's Jill Schlesinger. I'm launching a new show. It's called Money Moves, and we are going to move. We are going to answer your financial questions and take the mystery out of your financial life. Follow and listen wherever you get your podcasts.