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Martin Westlin - SD City Beat Magazine | Pat Launer - KPBS | Charlene Baldridge - La Jolla Village News |
Jennifer Chung - San Diego Union
No Mercy. Death Row isn’t just for the inmates.
By Martin Jones Westlin
On Friday, Jan. 13, Alan Crotzer was cleared of armed robbery and rape charges that had landed him a 130-year turn at Florida’s Polk Correctional Institution. Crotzer, incarcerated since 1982, has asked that he be allowed to remain at the prison while he makes living arrangements, which should be completed sometime after Jan. 23.
Meanwhile, Fox News says that Crotzer, 45, is “overwhelmed, emotional and overjoyed” at the turn of events, fueled amid new DNA-related evidence and information volunteered by one of the actual perps.
The characters in The Exonerated, Lynx Performance Theatre’s current entry, would tell you that Crotzer’s elation will soon give way to another set of feelings. And they’re intimately—nay, grotesquely—familiar with what that’s all about. They’re the onstage voices of six flesh-and-blood folks, wrongly convicted of various murders dating to the 1970s, who emerged from Death Row to face the ruination of their lives and to indict a court system sometimes as bloodthirsty as the monsters it prosecutes. True, Crotzer was spared the ultimate sentence. But after nearly a quarter-century in the slammer, he’s probably in no mood to draw a legal distinction between life and death.
We shouldn’t draw one, either. We should reflect on Jessica Blank and Eric Jensen’s award-winning script from 2002 and the profound respect it grants the accused. The ingenuousness of Kerry Max Cook (Ed Hofmeister), who tells of his rape and horrific mutilation while in a Texas prison; the offbeat ruminations of Delbert Lee Tibbs (David B. Phillips), who oughta write poetry (“Little time to talk about dreams in this world, where ice is everywhere”); the almost rustic shading to Gary Gauger’s (Walter Ritter) piteous lament: Blank and Jensen have painstakingly crafted each story to fit each situation and mood after hours of interviews with jurists and the mistakenly convicted.
The presentation resembles a staged reading—nonetheless, director Al Germani has coaxed some damn worthy physicality here, anchored by Linda Libby’s portrayal of Sonia Jacobs. Libby’s deer-in-the-headlights glower and spectral moves won’t soon leave you, and neither will her recounting of Jacobs’ story. Wrongly tagged with the killing of two lawmen in 1976, Jacobs gained further recognition as the common-law wife of Jesse Tefaro, convicted in the same murders. Tefaro is the man who in 1990 withstood two power surges from Florida’s electric chair before the third stopped his breathing. A malfunction sent foot-long flames from the top of Tefaro’s head and charred his skull over an area one witness described as “larger than my hand.” According to Jacobs, it took Tefaro 13 and a half minutes to die.
Jacobs, 57, was released in 1992 and is a successful L.A. yoga instructor.
All the stories are equally dramatic in their own way—in fact, a morbid piece of us would rather watch an account of the playwrights’ interviews rather than an enactment of the script that came from them. Even so, this is a great piece of psychosocial drama and a grisly testament to the darkest side of America’s judicial system. You can take the inmates out of Death Row, but back to top
Critic's Pick!
By Pat Launer, KPBS And on the subject of indictment, consider The Exonerated, based on a series of interviews with six wrongfully convicted death row inmates. Each was in the wrong place at the wrong time -- and at the wrong end of the racial, social or economic scale. Husband and wife team Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen interweave these gut-wrenching monologues, which might make you re-consider capital punishment. These excruciating stories of injustice focus not only on the years, even decades of incarceration, but also the post-release nightmare of their struggle for faith, self-respect and redemption. Under the taut, muscular direction of Al Germani, a stellar ensemble brings these hard-hitting stories to disturbing, unnerving life. Dark or light, it’s delectable -- theater that makes you think.
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Stage Page
By Charlene Baldridge, La Jolla Village News When Jessica Blank and Erik Jansen’s “The Exonerated” came to a close opening night January 13, the audience sat in silence in the dark. The only sounds were breaths caught raggedly and weeping no longer stifled. Director Al Germani of Lynx Performance Theatre took us on an intense, 80-minute journey to death row and introduced us to six innocent men and women who were accused, convicted, sentenced to death, and ultimately exonerated.
"The American criminal justice system sometimes fails. And when the sentence is death, wrongful convictions are irreversibly tragic. "The Exonerated," a powerful and well-cast docudrama at Lynx Performance Theatre, highlights the flaws in our legal system through the words of inmates who survived their death penalty convictions."
- Jennifer Chung,
San Diego Union Tribune |
Experiencing this work is like bearing witness to a miracle. The 2002 play is constructed from actual interviews, letters, transcripts, case files and the public record. It interweaves each person’s story, enhanced by the recorded poetry of Delbert Tibbs, beautifully read by David B. Phillips. The interwoven scenes build cumulatively to the play’s redemptive climax. Germani, who in previous seasons staged “Jesus Hopped the A Train” and “In Arabia We’d All Be Kings,” once again assembles and tautly directs a magnificent ensemble. The luminous Linda Libby portrays accused killer Sunny Jacobs, who could hardly have witnessed, let alone committed, the murder of a police officer. She was lying on the floor of a car, protecting her children with her own body. Prior to the confession of the real perpetrator, Jacobs spent 16 years on death row. During that time her husband, accused of murdering the other officer, was executed, horribly and ineffectually. Her parents died and her children grew up without a family.
Others in the large company are Darrell Allbrighton, Ed Hofmeister, David B. Philips, Walter Ritter, Lloyd Roberson II, Georgia Hayes, Veronica Murphy, Julie Sachs, Jonathan Sachs, Andrew Kennedy, and Bill Kehayias. Kudos to all and especially to Germani, who waited 2 1/2 years to secure the rights this socially relevant play that every thinking, feeling human being must see.
Only three weekends of performances remain. Curtain is at 9:15 p.m. Thursdays, 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays, and 8 p.m. Saturdays through February 9, 2653-R Ariane Dr. (off Morena Blvd., in the rear), San Diego. Tickets are $15-$20. Visit www.lynxpeformance.com or phone (619) 280-2641.
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'Exonerated' a chilling look at justice system
By Jennifer Chung, San Diego Union Tribune, January 16, 2006
The American criminal justice system sometimes fails. And when the sentence is death, wrongful convictions are irreversibly tragic. "The Exonerated," a powerful and well-cast docudrama at Lynx Performance Theatre, highlights the flaws in our legal system through the words of inmates who survived their death penalty convictions.
"Exonerated" tells the true stories of six innocent men and women sentenced to die – their trials, imprisonment, the events that led to their release and their attempts to return to a normal life.
Writers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen based the play on interviews, letters, case files and public records. It attracted an A-list of celebrity actors in its original 2002 production off-Broadway, and went on to tour across the country (including performances at the United Nations).
The play's heartbreaking and infuriating stories point toward the unfortunate role that money and prejudice play in justice. All the individuals experienced a nightmare of discrimination, coerced confessions, scapegoating and mishandled or unrevealed evidence.
"If you are accused of a sex crime in the South you probably should have done it, 'cause you will be found guilty," says Delbert Tibbs (David B. Phillips, straightforward and wryly humorous). The black poet wrongly convicted of murdering a white man and raping a white woman understands how preconceptions can cloud judgment and memory.
AdvertisementDirector Al Germani's staging is stark and affecting. Eight performers sit in chairs, taking turns telling pieces of their stories. Three other actors sit on raised platforms to the side and behind the audience. The logistics make for some uncomfortable craning, but their positioning seems appropriate, as they play various characters such as disingenuous lawyers, lying accusers and corrupt policemen.
The lighting effectively directs the focus, timing is precise and pacing flawless. When Kerry Max Cook (Ed Hofmeister) thumbs through the "yearbook" of inmates in Texas, all put to death within the last five years, the discomforting, pregnant pauses of darkness and silence emphasize the gravity of the issue.
Germani has assembled a uniformly excellent cast. Darrell Allbrighton is emotionally (and vocally) compelling as a spiritual and well-mannered student who keeps the faith while in prison but loses his way once outside.
Walter Ritter turns in a quietly affecting performance as the gentle man accused of brutally murdering his parents. And Linda Libby stands out as a mother convicted of murdering two police officers. Her Sunny is a tough, straight-talking woman who somehow finds strength and hope instead of numbness and resignation.
This kind of affirmation is the play's surprising conclusion. Despite physical and emotional imprisonment, these individuals find something within that helps them survive – religion, personal spirituality, hope in humanity or humor. Their stories are about the resilience of the human spirit, and at best may open a crucial dialogue on a flawed justice system.
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