ONSTAGE The Oakland will present 'Exonerated'

After years in prison, the condemned were set free.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Oakland Center for the Arts will present a play based on the true stories of six people who spent time on death row.
Called "The Exonerated," it tells of one woman and five men who were sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, despite overwhelming evidence that proved them innocent. After years in prison, they were finally freed.
Authors Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen interviewed hundreds of people across the country who had been exonerated and chose these six to create the play. Director Christopher Fidram was instrumental in bringing it to The Oakland.
"Two years ago, a friend got us tickets to see the play off Broadway," Fidram said.
"It was fascinating. It is not only about our core beliefs -- how society perceives death row -- but it is about finding the strength to survive under the worst conditions. My friend, who is not really a theater person, was blown away by it. You watch it and leave changed."
"I tell the cast that what makes this difficult is that you have convicted inmates who are giving presentations," Fidram continued. "You tell the story and make your point, then let the audience feel. We're not trying to make the audience feel uncomfortable or enraged."
Poverty factor
Fidram said that most of these cases were mishandled so badly because the people could not afford a good attorney.
"Most of them went in thinking everything would be OK," said Fidram. "They thought they would tell the truth and people would believe them."
The first staging off Broadway was originally a monologue. The authors then revised it with an ensemble of characters such as people in the courtroom and others involved, so that the audience could see how each of these cases happened.
"They did that as a theatrical device," Fidram said. "Later they wrote a book called 'Living Justice: Love, Freedom, and the Making of The Exonerated' that tells of their own journey traveling across the country as they interviewed people and wrote the play."
Fidram says this play makes Americans take a good look at their legal system.
"For someone on death row, it takes about 7-8 years to prove them innocent," he said. "In Texas, they are executed after 2-3 years. People who are exonerated are forbidden to sue after they are released. They have no other recourse. They have no money, no job. And they have to include on job applications that they were convicted of a crime. And it isn't even expunged from their record."
We identify
Fidram points out another very emotional aspect of this play: "We all fear this situation, to a degree," he said.
"We wonder what would happen if someone accused us of a crime we didn't commit. There is this fear that justice will become like college or health care: Only the wealthy can afford it."
Anne Finnerty-James of Canfield plays Sunny Jacobs, the only female of the six inmates, imprisoned from 1976-1992.
"She was a hippie, a vegetarian, married to an artist," said Finnerty-James. "They had a newborn daughter, still nursing, and she had a 9-year-old son by a previous relationship. Her husband went to Florida for one last drug deal. She said he wanted to come clean, with the new baby, and just wanted enough money so they could get a fresh start."
She ended up going to Florida to pick him up, and wound up in a car with an acquaintance, who shot a police officer, then implicated the two of them.
"They executed her husband in one of the most botched cases of electrocutions," said Finnerty-James. "The chair kept malfunctioning. He finally burst into flames. Her parents were also killed on their way to visit her in prison. We don't even know what happened to the two children."
Finnerty-James says she is honored to have a chance to interpret this person.
"Her real name was Sonia, but she was called Sunny because she always had a sunny disposition. She is now a yoga teacher. She wants her life to be a positive living monument. All of these people have found positive ways to continue their lives, including giving lectures on the prison system."