"A wonderful book: an adventure of innocents abroad. This is a work of art about a work of art, a tale of courage and compassion that changed the face of criminal justice in America. There is more pure heart, pure love, and pure patriotism in these pages than the Daughters of the American Revolution and George W. Bush put together!" --Mike Farrell, actor, chair of Death Penalty Focus

Also available The Exonerated : A Play by Jessica Blank, Erik Jensen "The Exonerated was originally presented in Los Angeles by the Actor's Gang (Tim Robbins, artistic director), in association with the Culture Project, on April 19, 2002." Get Living Large and The Exonerated: A Play at amazon.com

THE EXONERATED

New Book
Living Justice: Love, Freedom, and the Making of The Exonerated

by Jessica Blank, Erik Jensen

A love story...
a political education...
an artistic journey...
and an encounter with the most powerful life-and-death ordeals out there.

In 2000, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen embarked on a journey across America--one that would give them a glimpse of the darker side of the United States' justice system and, at the same time, reveal to them just how resilient the human spirit can be. They were a pair of young actors from New York who had the idea to travel cross-country and interview the exonerated--men and women who had been sentenced to die for crimes they didn't commit, who spent anywhere from two to twenty-two years on death row, and who were freed amidst overwhelming evidence of their innocence--and create a play from their words.

The prospect was daunting: How would these total strangers react when asked to share the most difficult and painful part of their lives? But, taking a chance, Jessica and Erik loaded up their rental car, complete with their dog, Zooey, in the backseat, and waved good-bye to Manhattan. What lay ahead of them was beyond anything they ever imagined. From an all-night diner on the gritty edge of Chicago to a ramshackle trailer tucked away in the hills of Georgia, from a Florida prison to an Illinois vegetable farm, they discovered the darkest corners and brightest lights of America. They were chased out of neighborhoods and welcomed in the most surprising places; they heard stories of injustice that made them shudder and stories of hope that left them speechless. And, along the way, they fell in love.

The result of Jessica and Erik's adventure was the award-winning show The Exonerated, which has been embraced by such acting luminaries as Ossie Davis, Richard Dreyfuss, Danny Glover, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and Robin Williams. The Exonerated ran to sold-out houses in New York City and toured the country to audiences that included bishops, governors, senators, Supreme Court justices, and a former attorney general.

Part social commentary, part love story, this powerful memoir is the story of the creation of The Exonerated and one couple's adventure as they learn, through the stories of those who had lost so much, what freedom truly means.

THE EXONERATED RETURNS TO THE MAINSTAGE

SATURDAY & SUNDAY
THROUGH NOVEMBER 24, 2002

Actors' Gang Theater, LA
Hollywood, CA 90038
(1 block east of Vine at El Centro)

323.465.0566

Ticket Prices:
Saturdays at 7:00 PM & Sunday at 2:00 PM $25

Student/Senior Discount
Saturdays at 7:00 PM & Sunday at 2:00 PM $20

For more info go to: www.theactorsgang.com

For info on "The Exonerated" in NYC

Press Coverage:
Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, Revolutionary Worker, The Guardian

From the Actors' Gang press release:

A new play about real-life experiences of people who were wrongly convicted of capital crimes and spent time on death row, THE EXONERATED, will have its West Coast premiere at The Actorsâ Gang, opening Friday, April 19. Writers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen will direct the production which is based on interviews with former prisoners. Bob Balaban serves as supervising director.

[Jessica and Erik have been involved with the Artists Network in New York City where THE EXONERATED was first presented in October 2000 at the 45 Bleecker Street Theater.] After attending a conference on the death penalty at Columbia University, writers Blank and Jensen were moved to action. Several months of staggering research later, they spent six weeks traveling America, interviewing 40 of the [then] 92 former death row prisoners and their families. Developing a structure for a reading version of the play, they collaborated with Bob Balaban who directed actors such as Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss, Tim Robbins, Steve Buscemi, Charles Dutton and David Morse in several staged readings last fall. Balaban will also direct a fully staged production in New York City later this year.

One of the people whose story is dramatized in THE EXONERATED is Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs, a vegetarian yoga instructor whose husband spent 13 minutes dying in a faulty electric chair. When Sunny went to prison for murder in 1976 her son was 9 and her daughter, 10 months old, still nursing. When she was freed in 1992, her daughter was 16 and her son was married with a child of his own. Ms. Jacobs who has seen three of the staged readings responded, "Each time I am struck by the sensitivity and intelligence with which it was conceived. It is healing to see us depicted in the context of each othersâ lives - so different and yet so alike. I feel easier about moving on now? I feel that part of my life is being left in good hands to serve a good purpose."

Press on the Exonerated:

LA Times review of The Exonerated
By PHILIP BRANDES,
SPECIAL TO THE LA TIMES 4/26/02

With Conviction, a Look at Convictions 'The Exonerated' collects true tales of those who were wrongfully placed on death row. It's vivid and thought-provoking at the Actors' Gang.

To speak of life-or-death stakes in "The Exonerated" is, for once, no exaggeration. Created and directed by New York-based Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen from interviews they conducted with former death row inmates whose wrongful convictions were eventually overturned, a riveting Actors' Gang staging examines capital punishment and the justice system in chilling terms.

By depicting the stories of six innocent people (out of 100 similar cases and rising), this devastating docudrama proves more profound and persuasive than any rhetorical pitch to abstract moral principles.

Others bore the stigmata of racial animus, like the sweet-tempered, naive black teenager (Ben Cain) who was held incommunicado for a week before signing a confession drafted for him. Or the fiercely eloquent former seminary student (Richard Lawson) who serves as the central narrator, charged for a murder--in a state he hadn't even visited--solely on the basis of his skin color.

All of these people shared only the unsettling predicament of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, unable to defend themselves against circumstances that conspired against them. As one reminds us, it can happen to anyone.

While many of the protagonists had the nobility to make peace with their experience, the fact that they eventually regained their freedom offers scant comfort. There is no way that white former bartender Kerry Cook (Ken Palmer) can erase the invectives carved into his flesh during his stay in prison. Former jockey Robert Hays (Ken Elliott) was unable to regain his racing license to pursue his occupation after his release. And Jesse Tafero, whose story we hear only second-hand, was unavailable for interviews, having undergone a horrific electrocution that required three jolts and took 13 minutes, before evidence proving his innocence came to light.

While capital punishment occupies the forefront here because it is irreversible, the underlying indictment embraces the broader fallibility of our justice system. There is no way to dismiss these stark case histories as statistical aberrations--we can and must do better.

"Wrongly convicted, they sat on death row for years. Extraordinary legal measures saved their lives. A new play confronts us with their nightmares."
-- Salon.com Article
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/10/20/exonerated/

"Meet Robert and Georgia, a Black couple from a small town in Mississippi (played by David Brown Jr. and Sarah Jones). They dig each other, they tell their stories in tandem, interrupting one another as lovers do, they are funny and strong together. Robert, a professional horse trainer, was convicted of raping and killing a white woman in 1991. The murdered woman was found clutching 16-inch long strands of red-blond hair in her hand. At the time Robert was convicted, it was known that another worker at the racetrack had been pursuing the victim sexually and had made racist comments about how she dated Black men. He had long red-blond hair. Robert was released in 1997 after six years of fighting for his innocence from prison and finding people on the outside to fight with him. From the play we learn that he is still harassed by police in his home town, and the racing commission has refused to give him his license back, so he can't make a living working with horses. Georgia: "He can't do something he likes to do."

"....As the play ends, Larry Marshall comes to the stage. He is a Chicago lawyer who is known to many on death rowas someone who has devoted his law practice to helping people fight for their lives in the prisons of the U.S. He calls up Robert and Georgia from the audience, then Randall and Brenda, Kerry and Sandra, Brad, Sunny, and finally Delbert. The theater rises as one with thunderous applause as these people you have come to know take their places with the actors. For me, it is one of those transcendent moments. Before us are people who had the courage to stand strong and unbroken through unspeakable horrors. They have come forward to tell their stories to these artists who used the power of their art to return all this to us in the form of a beautiful play that will, without doubt, do its part to help us change this world."
--Revolutionary Worker article
http://rwor.org/a/v22/1070-79/1078/exoner.htm