Exonerated

Our School of Theatre is currently producing “The Exonerated” by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen — a play based on the true stories of six exonerated death row inmates.

I saw it tonight – a very powerful and moving performance with outstanding performances by our student actors. I saw it before in New York, but this production still hit me hard.

In conjunction with this production, the hallways are filled with birds — each one representing an exonerated prisoner.

image

One of the important messages of the play is that it’s easy for people to sit back and delude themselves that this kind of injustice can’t happen, or that it’s not their job to fix… but you can’t do that.

Important stuff.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Exonerated

  1. Jean Valjean says:

    Is that about the guys who were pardoned in Illinois? I heard some of them interviewed on This American Life (isn’t that an irony?) a few years ago. An incredibly harrowing tale. As you say, it affects all of us, could happen to any of us, and is a disgrace to democracy.

  2. Randy says:

    Our criminal justice system is a system alright. Any actual justice dispensed is purely coincidental.

  3. DdC says:

    The National Registry of Exonerations is a joint project of the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law.

    The Innocence Project
    DNA Exonerations Nationwide

    California Governor Proposes Massive Prison Expansion
    To Avoid Freeing Inmates

    Human Rights Watch has documented abominable conditions for children in detention in countries around the world. In the United States (Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, and Maryland), Pakistan, Jamaica, among other countries, children are subjected to excessive force, inadequate medical and mental health care, and are provided with little or no education. Often, these children are placed in the facilities along side adults, exposing them to physical and sexual abuse.

    ‘Relax Your Muscles as Much as Possible’
    * What’s The Problem With ‘No-Knock’ Searches?
    * Corrections Corporation of America Used in Drug Sweeps
    One Drug Arrest Every 19 Seconds
    THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR PRISONERS
    Slave Labor Means Big Bucks For U.S. Corporations
    * Go Directly to Jail
    * Louisiana Dungeons are anti-American, anti-Humanity.
    27-Year-Old Man Gets “20 Years Hard Labor” for Half an Ounce of Pot
    Private Prisons Industry: Increasing Incarcerations,
    Maximizing Profits and Corrupting Our Democracy
    * Angela Davis on the Prison Abolishment Movement
    Wading Into the Morass of a Broken Criminal Justice System
    Prison Industrial Complex
    Prison Labor as a Business Model
    * Herman Wallace Requiescat In Pace

    “The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who are convicted of nonviolent offenses, border on the unimaginable. Prison rape not only threatens the lives of those who fall prey to their aggressors, but it is potentially devastating to the human spirit. Shame, depression, and a shattering loss of self-esteem accompany the perpetual terror the victim thereafter must endure.”
    Harry A. Blackmun,
    U.S. Supreme Court Justice
    Farmer v. Brennan

    Job Security

    California Cops Are Trained ‘Marijuana Is Not A Medicine’
    A recent court case in San Diego has revealed some California police officers are basing their sworn court testimony in medical marijuana cases on badly outdated, legally inaccurate information.

Comments are closed.