'The Exonerated' comes to ARTworks this weekend

Provided

Culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files, and the public record, "The Exonerated" tells the true stories of six wrongfully convicted survivors of death row in their own words.

The staged reading is produced by Misspent Youth Productions and directed by Stephen Murray. Come watch on February 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m.; all seats are only $7. 

Moving between first-person monologues and scenes set in courtrooms and prisons, six interwoven stories paint a picture of an American criminal justice system gone horribly wrong and of six brave souls who persevered to survive it.

In this ninety-minute intermissionless play, we meet Kerry, a sensitive Texan brutalized on death row for 22 years before being exonerated by DNA evidence. We also meet Gary, a Midwestern organic farmer condemned for the murder of his own parents and later exonerated when two motorcycle gang members confess.

We meet Robert, an African-American horse groomer who spent seven years on death row for the murder of a white woman before evidence emerged that the victim was found clutching hair from a Caucasian attacker.

We hear from David, a shy man with aspirations to the ministry, bullied into confessing at 18 to a robbery/murder he had nothing to do with. He's scarred from a youth spent in prison and struggling to regain his faith. And we meet Sunny, a bright-spirited hippie who, along with her husband, spent 17 years in prison for the murder of two police officers while another man confessed and was ignored by the courts.

Finally, we meet Delbert, a poet who serves as the play's center focus, convicted of a rape/murder in the Deep South of the 1970s and later freed when evidence surfaced showing that he was not even in town when the crime occurred. 

ARTworks applies the many creative tools of The Arts to strengthen artists and enrich audiences, collectors, and visitors through high quality experiences and education programs 365 days a year. ARTworks is located in Beaufort Town Center at 2127 Boundary Street. For more information, visit their website at www.artworksinbeaufort.org.