The Exonerated ─ A Play

What does it truly mean to be exonerated? The dictionary says it is to be proclaimed innocent after having been convicted of a crime. But what effect does it have on a person - a soul, a life - to have one's freedom and self-respect stripped away and then, ostensibly, returned years later, after decades of incarceration? The Exonerated attempts to answer this question, through the words of six innocent men and women who emerged from years on death row to try to reclaim what is left of their lives.
Among them is Sunny Jacobs, a mother of two whose unwavering belief during sixteen years in jail that she would be released (despite the execution of her husband, who was also innocent, for the same crime) allowed her to dedicate herself to being a "living memorial" when she was finally freed. There is Kerry Max Cook, a man whom "Texas killed a thousand times, and just keeps on doing it" in his nightmare for years after his release. And there is Delbert Tibbs, a black Chicago poet who speaks of his years on death row with anger and bitterness, yet also, as he says, "still sings." All their stories have been compiled and edited by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen into The Exonerated, a play that is both a work of theater and an exploration of one dark aspect of the American criminal justice system.