The Exonerated

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The Exonerated
Genre Drama
Directed by Bob Balaban
Produced by Greg Schultz
Steven Tabakin
Karen Wolfe
Written by Erik Jensen
Jessica Blank
Starring David Brown Jr.
Brian Dennehy
Danny Glover
Delroy Lindo
Aidan Quinn
Susan Sarandon
Music by David Robbins
Editing by Andy Keir
Country United States
Language English
Original channel CourtTV
Original airing January 27, 2005
Running time 95 minutes

The Exonerated is a made-for-cable television film which dramatizes the true stories of six people who had been wrongfully convicted of murder and other offenses, placed on death row, and later exonerated and freed after serving varying years in prison. It was based on a successful stage play of the same name written by Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank and first aired on the former CourtTV cable television network on January 27, 2005. It is directed by Bob Balaban was produced by Radical Media.

Actors played the roles of the five men and one woman. It stars David Brown, Jr. (the only cast member to have appeared in the stage play) as Robert Earl Hayes, Brian Dennehy as Gary Gauger, Danny Glover as David Keaton, Delroy Lindo as Delbert Tibbs, Aidan Quinn as Kerry Max Cook and Susan Sarandon as Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs.

The script was based on the exonerees' personal experiences as well as court records and media accounts.

Jessica Blank, who is married to Erik Jensen, got the idea for the play when she moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota to New York City. She and Jensen attended a conference about the death penalty and listened to stories about wrongful convictions and confessions gained via torture, threats and deception. The couple spent the summer of 2000 interviewing exonerees throughout the United States and adapted the stories of six people into a script.

The play was first presented in New York City; the final performance was in Minneapolis in 2002.

For their efforts, Jensen and Blank received the Champion of Justice Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The exonerated

  • Kerry Max Cook: Convicted of murdering a neighbor in Texas in 1977; exonerated in 1997.[1]
  • Gary Gauger: Convicted of murdering his mother and father in Illinois in 1993; exonerated in 1996.[2]
  • Robert Earl Hayes: Black Florida racetrack worker convicted of murdering a white woman in 1990; exonerated in 1997.[3] In 2004, the real Robert Hayes pled guilty to manslaughter and arson in a 1987 rape and murder in New York. He is now serving 15 to 45 years. He is also the prime suspect in rapes in Delaware and New Jersey.[4]
  • Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs: Convicted, along with common law husband, Jesse Tafero, and his friend, Walter Rhodes, of murdering Philip Black, a Florida state trooper and Donald Irwin, a visiting Canadian constable in 1976; Jacobs was not exonerated. Her death sentence was overturned in 1981, and she was sentenced to life with a 25 year minimum mandatory sentence. In 1992 her case was reversed on appeal, and she pled to second degree murder, and was released on time served. [5] Tafero was incinerated in a botched electrocution in 1990. In 2011, Jacobs married Peter Pringle, who had himself been exonerated after being sentenced to death in Ireland.[6] The wedding was attended by actresses who had portrayed Sunny: when she spoke her "I do," they chorused, "We do!"
  • David Keaton: Convicted of murdering a Florida police officer in 1971; exonerated in 1973.[7]
  • Delbert Tibbs: Black Florida man convicted of murdering a white man and raping his girlfriend in 1974; exonerated in 1976. He was eventually freed in 1979 after serving time for an unrelated charge.[8]

Aidan Quinn reprised his role as Kerry Max Cook in The Exonerated's staging at the Dublin Theatre Festival in Dublin, Ireland in October, 2006 as well as the stage version in New York City. David Soul took over the role of Gary Gaugher for several of the Dublin performances.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.texnews.com/texas97/cook111297.html
  2. ↑ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june00/deathpenalty_2-4.html
  3. ↑ http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/Hayes_FL.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.fadp.org/news/Utica-20041119.htm
  5. ↑ 952 F.2d 1282: Sonia Jacobs A/k/a Sonia Linder
  6. ↑ Sunny Jacobs & Peter Pringle (June 26, 2013). "Sunny Jacobs & Peter Pringle". SunnyandPeter,com. Archived from the original on 2013-07-23. Retrieved July 23, 2013. "Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs and Peter Pringle each served years on death row—Jacobs 17 years in the United States and Pringle 15 years in Ireland.... Their wedding in late 2011 was perhaps the first of its kind: the union of two exonerated death row inmates." 
  7. ↑ http://www.deadlinethemovie.com/characters/david_keaton.php
  8. ↑ http://itrs.scu.edu/bfl/delbert.html

External links

Films directed by Bob Balaban
  • Complete list
  • (1976–2000)
  • (2001–2025)
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