{"id":135670,"date":"2024-01-03T16:04:11","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T22:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=135670"},"modified":"2024-01-03T16:04:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T22:04:12","slug":"death-row-survivors-tell-their-stories-in-theatre-oxfords-production-of-the-exonerated-january-6-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/death-row-survivors-tell-their-stories-in-theatre-oxfords-production-of-the-exonerated-january-6-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Row Survivors Tell Their Stories in Theatre Oxford\u2019s Production of The Exonerated January 6, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The stories told in The Exonerated<\/strong><\/em> are testaments to resilience and faith but also the post-traumatic stress that having lived in the shadow of death can bring, particularly when you are innocent of the crimes that put you on prison\u2019s death row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunny, 50, a mother of two, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up on Death Row. Gary, a 45-year-old hippie, was so \u201cbrainwashed\u201d by police interrogators that he falsely confessed to murdering his own parents. Sixty-year-old Delbert Tibbs was convicted of murder because he happened to be black and near the small Florida town where a man was killed and young woman raped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA bunch of cops surround us, and I\u2019m trying to explain that we were kidnapped, but they just wouldn\u2019t listen,\u201d Sunny said about the aftermath of her fateful ride with an armed man who had forced her and her children into a car after killing two cops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gary\u2019s troubles accelerated after he got to the police station. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t let me sleep, wouldn\u2019t let me lie down,\u201d he said. \u201cI was emotionally distraught. I was physically exhausted. I was confused … They started making me think I had a blackout and actually done it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delbert Tibbs, an old soul from Chicago, seminary dropout, military veteran, and radical poet, had to learn how to cope with being an innocent man on death row. \u201cThis is not the place for thought that does not end in concreteness,\u201d Tibbs tells us. \u201cIt is dangerous to dwell too much on things. To wonder who or why or when, to wonder how, is dangerous. How do we, the people, get outta this hole, what\u2019s the way to fight?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These true stories are among the half-dozen told in Theatre Oxford<\/strong>\u2019s production of The Exonerated<\/em> at the Powerhouse Arts Center Saturday, January 6<\/strong>, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.<\/strong> A discussion on the legal and other issues raised by the play will be led by Tucker Carrington<\/strong>, the founding director of the Mississippi Innocence Project<\/a><\/strong>, following the matinee performance. Serving as moderator will be Melissa Gwin Pedron.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The production, rescheduled to January 6 after a cast illness prevented production on its original September 8 and 9 dates, is made possible by the support of Frye | Reeves Attorneys at Law<\/strong>, the Mississippi Arts Commission<\/strong>, and Yoknapatawpha Arts Council<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authored by Jessica Blank<\/strong> and Erik Jenson<\/strong>, The Exonerated<\/em> shares true stories that range from racially motivated arrests and false confessions to tales of guilt by association. Directing the Theatre Oxford production is theatre veteran Felipe Esteban Macias<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have six wonderful stories wrapped up in one play,\u201d Macias says about The Exonerated<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taken from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files, and public records, the stories offer sobering insights into the nation\u2019s criminal justice system and capital punishment. The Exonerated<\/em> won the 2003 Drama Desk and Outer Critic\u2019s Awards and also received the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers\u2019 Champion of Justice Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tickets will be available at the door and seats can be reserved at\u00a0 https:\/\/oxfordarts.com\/theatreoxford<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The stories told in The Exonerated are testaments to resilience and faith but also the post-traumatic stress that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":135672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15944],"tags":[27555,27561,27558,27559,5,2662,4,27560,3,27554,198,1673,1177,2396],"class_list":["post-135670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-theatre","tag-death-row","tag-felipe-estaban-macias","tag-frye-reeves-attorneys-at-law","tag-jessica-blank","tag-mississippi","tag-mississippi-arts-commission","tag-oxford","tag-reik-jenson","tag-the-local-voice","tag-the-oxonerated","tag-the-powerhouse","tag-theatre-oxford","tag-yac","tag-yoknapatawpha-arts-council"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/The-Exonerated-Instagram-Post-Final-copy.jpg?fit=1200%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135677,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135670\/revisions\/135677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}