The Exonerated Script

It was midnight when Bernice got off work. She was exhausted after a long and terrible day, and just wanted to get home to a hot bath. She was driving down the street, flipping through radio stations, when she pulled up to a stop sign, and saw something weird. A shadowy figure ran up to an idling fruit truck, pushed the delivery man down, grabbed a crate of bananas, and ran off around the corner. Bernice was pretty shaken up, but she made sure the driver was okay, and then called the police, describing the thief as a pale, lanky man, wearing a dark jacket and a baseball cap. She gave the cops her information, and then she went home. A couple days later the police asked her to come down to the station to identify a potential thief--a guy who more or less matched her description, and was found eating a banana early that morning, near the scene of the crime. Although the guy professed innocence, Bernice said it was him, and they locked him up. But at the trial, the defense called a memory expert to the stand, and soon after that, the suspect walked. Today’s lesson may not quite make you an expert worthy of the witness stand, but by the time we’re done, you’ll understand a lot more about how we retrieve memories we think we’ve stored, and why the accused banana thief was set free. [INTRO] We’re all constantly retrieving memories throughout the day-- you’re remembering where you parked your car, or if you fed the cat, or called your mom ‘cause it’s her birthday. You’ll remember from last week that while our implicit memories--like how to talk and ride a bike--are dealt with on a mostly automatic and non-conscious level, our explicit memories--the chronicles of our personal experiences and general knowledge -- often require conscious, effortful work. Bernice had to notice, encode, store, and later consciously retrieve details about the crime she witnessed--what color was the guy’s jacket, what did he look like, what did he steal, and where did he run? It takes a lot of work to retrieve memories from long-term storage, and the truth is, a lot can go wrong along the way. In order to understand all of the many fascinating ways you forget things, we need to talk more about how we remember. Our memories are not like books in the library of your mind. You don’t just pluck a neatly-packaged memory -- about where you left your phone or the hair color of a fruit thief. Instead your memories are more like the spider webs in the dank catacombs of your mind--a series of interconnected associations that link all sorts of diverse things, as bits of information get stuck to other bits of information. Like, maybe Bernice remembers that the night of the crime was chilly with a full moon, and that Beyonce was on the radio, and the fruit truck had plates from California, which is where her grandfather lives. All those bits of information in the web of memory--the weather, the song, the plates--can serve as retrieval cues, kind of like a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to a particular memory. The more retrieval cues you inadvertently, or intentionally, build along the way, the better you can backtrack and find the memory you’re looking for. This way of activating associations non-consciously is called priming, sometimes called “memoryless memory”. It’s how “invisible memories” that you didn’t know you had can awaken old associations. Priming is how you often jog your memory. This kind of recall is sometimes referred to as context-dependent memory. Say you’re reading in bed, and you want to underline a quote, but you don’t have a pen. You get up and go into the other room to find your special light-up Hello Kitty pen, but you get distracted and suddenly you find yourself in the kitchen; you’re like “Why? Why, mind? Why am I in the kitchen? What is here? Why am- there was a rea- and I don’t know but I’m here now and agh!” It’s only when you retrace your steps and return to bed, to the initial context where you read that quote and encoded that first thought of wanting that pen, that the memory comes back. And then you’re like ‘oh, I need to go get the pen. Ugh’ If some memories are context-dependent, others are state-dependent, and also mood-congruent. This just means that our states and our emotions can also serve as retrieval cues. If I had a throbbing headache and a super bad day, I’m more likely to start recalling bad memories, because I’m priming negative associations. But of course if I’m relaxed and jolly, I’m prone to remember happy times, which are prolonging my good mood. Another funny memory-retrieval quirk speaks not to our location or emotions, but to the order in which we receive new information. So, say you make a grocery list in the morning, but a few hours later, you’re at the store, you realize you left it at home. You’d be more likely to recall the first items on the list--bananas and bread--and the last items--pickles and cheese--than anything in the middle. This is known as the serial position effect. This might be because the early words benefited from what’s known as the primacy effect, and made it into your long-term memory because they were rehearsed more. Meanwhile, the last words lingered in the working memory through the recency effect. But those poor middle words, they didn’t benefit from either effect and therefore escaped your brain, which is why you now have no toilet paper, dog food, toothpaste, or cookies. Who forgets cookies? But even with all these tricks and associations, things still go wrong--memory can fail or become distorted, and of course we forget things. Forgetfulness can be as minor as those frustrating moments where you’re like ‘Ah, it’s on the tip of my tongue. It’s the guy, the guy’s got hair, and a face, and, like, shoulders.’ Or as major as Clive Wearing, whose neurological damage made it impossible for him to recall the past or create new memories. Of course, we all forget things, and typically we do it in one of three different ways: We fail to encode it, we fail to retrieve it, or we experience what psychologists call storage decay. Sometimes forgetting something just means it never really got through your encoding process in the first place. I mean, think of all the stuff that’s going around you at any given moment. We only actually notice a fraction of what we sense, and we can only consciously hold so many bits of information in our minds at any given time, so what we fail to notice, we tend to not encode, and thus don't remember. Bernice noticed a dark jacket, Beyonce, and bananas, but she didn’t encode much about the driver, or the color of the thief’s shoes. Then again, even memories that have been encoded are still vulnerable to storage decay, or natural forgetting over time. Interestingly, even though we can forget things pretty quickly, the amount of data that we forget can actually levels off after a while. This means that Bernice would have forgotten about half of what she first noticed from the crime scene a couple days later, but what she still remembered, she’d likely hang on to, because the rate at which we forget tends to plateau. A lot of times forgetting doesn’t mean our memory just faded to black, it means we can’t call it up on demand because of retrieval failure. We all know the common tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon where you feel like you know the name of that weird-looking hard-backed animal that rolls up into ball. It’s kind of cute and weird and I think they get leprosy or something…what is it?! This is where retrieval cues can come in handy. If I say is starts with the letter A, you may suddenly unlock the information--Armadillo! Sometimes these retrieval problems stem from interference from other memories getting in the way, essentially cluttering the brain. Sometimes, old stuff that you’ve learned keeps you from recalling new stuff -- like, if you change one of your passwords, but keep recalling your old one every time you try to log in. That’s called proactive, or forward-acting, interference. The flip side is retroactive, or backward-acting, interference, which happens when new learning gets in the way of recalling old information, like if you start studying Spanish, it may interfere with the French that you’ve already learned. There’s a lot of reconstruction and inferring involved when you try to flesh out a memory, and every time you replay it in your mind, or relate it to a friend, it changes, just a little. So in a way, we’re all sort of perpetually re-writing our pasts. While this is an inevitable part of human nature, it can prove dangerous at times. Misleading information can get incorporated into a memory, and twist the truth - and yes there is an effect for this; it’s called the misinformation effect. American psychologist and memory expert Elizabeth Loftus has spent decades showing how eyewitnesses inadvertently tweak and reconstruct their memories after accidents or crimes. In one experiment, two groups watched a film of a car accident. Those asked how fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other estimated much higher speeds than those who were asked about the cars hitting each other. Smash is the leading word that essentially altered the witnesses’ memories -- so much so that a week later, when both groups were asked if they saw any broken glass, those who heard the word smash were twice as likely to report seeing bits of glass, when in fact, the original film didn’t show any. In Bernice’s case, chances are her memory of the robbery would be altered if the prosecution said the thief assaulted, rather than pushed the driver. This sort of interfering or misleading information may also manifest itself as source misattribution, like when we forget or misrecall the source of a memory. In the case of Bernice, when she saw the suspect in the courtroom, she thought she recognized him from the night of the crime, when in reality, he’d just served her coffee earlier that day. But her memory of the event had probably already been tweaked several times before she even made it into the courtroom. Like she re-lived the tale multiple times, in her own mind or when she told other people about it, and every time she introduced errors, filling in memory gaps with reasonable guesses. Not only that, but we know Bernice was already tired and stressed when she witnessed the event, and we know our emotions can influence both what we remember and what we forget. Because memory is both a reconstruction and a reproduction of past events, we can’t ever really be sure if a memory is real just because it feels real. Elizabeth Loftus knows this. She’s frequently called in to testify against the accuracy of eyewitnesses. In fact, of all the U.S. prisoners who have been exonerated based on DNA evidence presented by Innocence Project, a non-profit legal group, 75 percent of them were convicted by mistaken eyewitnesses. That is a lot of innocent people. Bernice meant well of course, she’s an honest enough lady, but all these factors--the emotion, the retelling, the suggestions of outside sources-- combined with the darkness, the quick glimpse, the passing of time, maybe even the Beyonce, ended up leading to a mistake in the thief’s identification. Turns out the human memory is actually a very fragile thing. We’re all largely the product of the stories that we tell ourselves. If you haven’t forgotten already, today you learned about how our memories are stored in webs of association, aided by retrieval cues and priming, and influenced by context and mood. You also learned how we forget information, how our memories are susceptible to interference and misinformation, and why eyewitnesses are often not as reliable as you might think. Thanks for watching, especially to all of our Subbable subscribers, who make this whole channel possible. To learn how you can keep these lessons coming while earning awesome perks, just go to subbable.com. This episode was written by Kathleen Yale, edited by Blake de Pastino, and our consultant is Dr. Ranjit Bhagwat. Our director and editor is Nicholas Jenkins, the script supervisor is Michael Aranda, who’s also our sound designer, and the graphics team is Thought Café.

The Exonerated by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen; A staged reading Character Breakdown (UPDATED). Seeking gender non-conforming, gender-conforming, genderqueer, transgender, and non-binary actors. The Exonerated- Raven Theatre- Culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files, and public record, The Exonerated tells the stories of six wrongfully convicted survivors of death row in their own words. It paints a harrowing picture of American justice gone terribly wrong, as well as a tribute to the perseverance and bravery of the people it portrays.

What do The Exonerated, Trumbo, The Guys and The Vagina Monologues have in common? All were/are socially relevant plays presented as staged readings, and with an army of celebrities - major and minor - traipsing through the runs.Without staging or memorization, heavily scheduled people such as Rob Lowe and Richard Dreyfus have been able to traipse through the the still going strong run of The Exonerated at random. Though this limits production values, it allows the cast to help pull in audiences as well as a way to keep the show fresh on its toes - a common challenge for open run productions.The most recent spin on this 'name' casting took a more literal route: on the show's first anniversary this past October, one of the people portrayed in the play, Kerry Max Cook, performed himself. From November 17 - 23 this experiment was stepped up with four of the exonerated individuals portrayed playing themselves - Kerry Max Cook, Gary Gauger, Sunny Jacobs and Delbert Tibbs.The afternoon of my attendance, all but Kerry Max Cook were on stage, leaving an even split of actors portraying exonerated individuals and exonerated individuals telling their own story. It was instantly recognizable who was who by on-stage demeanor.

The show is carefully and dramatically constructed, and therefore fit the movements and intonations of the veteran professional performers with ease. For Gauger, Jacobs and Tibbs, reciting lines about their own lives took warm-up time. Though I found it heart wrenching to hear these people tell their own story, the transition back and forth between the two camps took considerable adjusting.The writers, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen traveled all around the country to interview many exonerated individuals, judges, prison guards, etc.

They say that the script was created by reconstructing the words of these individuals, and all stories are completely true. Whenever Gauger, Jacobs or Tibbs were reciting lines, I wanted them to stop, to close their scripts and tell me - tell us - what they had told Blank and Jensen, rather than this reconstruction of their story.With the continued cast rotationt, chances are good these exonerated individuals will return to the stage at The Culture Project. Chances are also good that another casting innovation could well be on its way for this show. For a full review of the play, the first cast and the non-changing production details, see Elyse Sommer's review following this box.Cast for Nov 17 - 23, 2003: Kerry Max Cook/ Bill Dawes, Gary Gauger, Erik LaRay Harvey, Sunny Jacobs, Delbert Tibbs, Ed Onipede Blunt, Bruce Kronenberg, Katherine Leask, Larry Block, William Jay Marshall, Curtis McClarin, April Yvette Thompson.- reviewed by, at a November 23rd 2003 matinee.

It's not easy to be a poet and yet I sing. We sing-Dilbert TibbsThe Exonerated is in the tradition of agitprop theater or what journalists refer to as muckraking. Not a bad thing when its message is as smoothly stitched into a human quilt as it is here, with the figures in that quilt brought to life by a committed ensemble of actors.As Moises Kaufman and the members of his Tectonic Project forged The Laramie Project from interviews with the people in the town where Matthew Shepard was killed, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen have created The Exonerated from interviews they conducted with former death row inmates all over the country. Unlike Laramie, which focuses on a single case, The Exonerated uses the stories of six of its interview subjects to represent not only the forty people with whom they met but the eighty-nine people who were exonerated in the summer of 2000 when they took their tape recorders on the road. Exonerated, by the way, does not mean that you are declared unconditionally innocent that that you've been freed because it turns out that you have not been proven guilty beyond a doubt.While this is an unashamed anti-death penalty polemic, Blank and Jensen are theater people as much as American citizens with a cause. In format, The Exonerated, is, like The Guys, essentially a staged reading. However, with a strong assist from director Bob Balaban, the cross-cutting from one monologist to another and the power of the words (condensed,combined and extrapolated for theatrical impact but using the words from the authors' transcripts) is such that those who come expecting a play and not a lecture won't feel short changed. Like The Guys and other concert style plays, The Exonerated, could, with the right audience response, continue its open run indefinitely, with the cast rotating and kept newsworthy by the addition of other high profile actors like the current production's Jill Clayburgh, Sara Gilbert and Richard Dreyfuss.But don't expect any of these box office draw actors to dominate the stage.

Clayburgh and Dreyfuss powerfully relate two of six gut-wrenching stories so that we have a real picture of each one's personality. The same is true of the other stories and the rest of the ensemble. Gilbert has one of the smallest roles as the woman who marries Kerry Max Cooke (Richard Dreyfuss. After he is released from prison.Clayburgh at first seems too well-groomed and upbeat to be part of these at times gasp inducing experiences. But as we get to know Sunny Jacobs we understand the almost constant smile.

This woman, who along with her common-law husband was sent to death row based on false evidence given by a man who turned out to be a friend from Hell, is one of the most forceful characters on stage. At first incapable of taking in her incarceration - 'I'm a hippie, a vegetarian- how could I kill anyone?' - she survives her incredible twenty-two year ordeal when she determines to have faith because ' I wasn't just a lump of flesh you could put in a cage.'

True to her name, she also goes on with her life as a Yoga teacher and public speaker, determined that her living will serve as a memorial for her lover.Unlike Sunny, Kerry (the Dreyfuss character), and several of the other exonerated have more difficulty dealing with the nightmare memories of their ordeals. As Kerry says, 'They executed me a thousand times and they're still doing it.' The most articulate character, a political radical named Delbert Tibbs, who was falsely accused of rape and murder while hitchhiking across America, is played with distinction by the mellifluous voiced Charles Brown who last excelled in. As already pointed out though, this is an ensemble piece includes besides Sara Gilbert's 'swing' character an African-American ( (April Yvette Thompson) who plays a variety of other supporting parts. There is also a male chorus, the versatile Bruce Kronenberg and Philip Levy, to take on all the bigoted and politically motivated rotten apples in the American justice system.If you're looking for a two-sided, open-minded play about capital punishment, this is not it.

Still, whether you're for or against it, you'll be moved by the potency with which these particular case histories are brought to life. The Exonerated is not easy to watch, but then it's not easy to be locked up and condemned to death for a crime you didn't commit and, as Sunny puts it, have an 'entire chunk from your life removed.' . The cast rotation began within a week of this review, with Peter Gallagher and Amelia Campbell scheduled to move into Richard Dreyfuss's and Sara Gilbert's chairs.LINKS TO OTHER PLAYS MENTIONEDThe ExoneratedBy Jessica Blank and Erik JensenDirected by Bob BalabanCast: Richard Dreyfuss (Kerry Max Cook), Jill Clayburgh (Sunny Jacobs), Sara Gilbert (Sue Gauger, Sandra), Charles Brown (Delbert Tibbs), David Brown Jr. (Robert Earl Hayes), Bruce Kronenberg (Male Ensemble #1), Phil Levy( Male Ensemble #2), Curtis McClarian (David Keaton), Jay O. Sanders (Gary Gauger) April YvetteThompson(Georgia Hayes, Judge, Paula, Prosecutor)Production Design/ Technical Supervisdor: Tom OntiverosCostume Coordinator: Sara J. TosettiOriginal Music and Sound Design: David RobbinsRunning time: 95 minutes without intermission45 Bleecker (corner Lafayette) 212-307-4100Tue - Fri at 8pm; Sat at 5pm, 9pm; Sun at 3pm, 7pm - $55Reviewed by based on performance.

Genre: LawPublisher: DIANE PublishingISBN10: Copyright Year: 1996File Format: PDF, EPUBFile Download: 85Price: FREEDESCRIPTION: The development of DNA technology furthers the search for truth by helping police & prosecutors in the fight against violent crime. Most of the individuals whose stories are told in the report were convicted after jury trials & were sentenced to long prison terms. They successfully challenged their convictions, using DNA tests on existing evidence. They had served, on average, seven years in prison. By highlighting the importance & utility of DNA evidence, this report presents challenges to the scientific & justice communities. A task ahead is to maintain the highest standards for the collection & preservation of DNA evidence.

Genre: Political SciencePublisher: Simon and SchusterISBN10: 420Copyright Year: 2019-09-24File Format: PDF, EPUBFile Download: 365Price: FREEDESCRIPTION: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Great new book by wonderful and very street smart author Dan Bongino, EXONERATED, THE FAILED TAKEDOWN OF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP BY THE SWAMP. Dan hits all of the crooked points of the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Nevertheless, the Scam continues!” —President Donald J. Trump An explosive, whistle-blowing expose, Exonerated: The Failed Takedown of Donald Trump by the Swamp reveals how Deep State actors relied on a cynical plug-and-play template to manufacture the now-discredited Russiagate scandal. With the cutting analysis and insight he exhibited in his blockbuster bestseller Spygate: The Attempted Sabotage of Donald J.

Trump, Fox News contributor Bongino exposes who masterminded the dangerous playbook to take down Trump, their motives, and how a plan filled with faked allegations backfired—forcing investigators to up the ante and hide their missteps and half-truths in a desperate effort to prove a collusion case that never happened. The misguided multimillion Mueller investigation that tore the nation apart, tried to destabilize the presidency and led, as the world now knows, to nowhere! Genre: Literary CriticismPublisher: Gale, Cengage LearningISBN10: 486Copyright Year: 2016File Format: PDF, EPUBFile Download: 23Price: FREEDESCRIPTION: A Study Guide for Jessica Blank's 'The Exonerated,' excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs. Genre: Biography & AutobiographyPublisher:ISBN10: Copyright Year: 2014-02-10File Format: PDF, EPUBFile Download: 308Price: FREEDESCRIPTION: The story of a man who stood for something and the woman he loved. Falsely accused of murdering his girlfriend, James Woodard served more than twenty-seven years in prison. In April 2008, James became the seventeenth man exonerated by DNA evidence in Dallas County. The same day he was granted his freedom, James laid eyes on Joyce King, the 'prison wife' he'd fantasized about falling in love with for nearly three decades.

The Exonerated Summary

It was the happiest day of his life. Their mutual attraction was immediate, but a major hurdle complicated their relationship. Joyce was a prominent activist, the first non-lawyer to serve on the board of directors for the Innocence Project of Texas, the nonprofit that helped James win his freedom and ensure justice by working hard to change the compensation law in Texas. EXONERATED vividly details the instant bond James and Joyce shared as soul mates and the challenges that arouse when their disparate worlds collided.

This riveting account serves as a blueprint for how to navigate innocence and avoid the painful lessons they learned about justice, freedom, power, and love. A gripping yet tragic story of how imprisoning an innocent man for twenty-seven years destroys him and traumatizes the woman who loves him. This very personal account of a wrongful incarceration and its victim will deeply touch not only those who fight for justice but also folks who sit on the sideline. Morris Dees, Founder, Southern Poverty Law Center EXONERATED looks at James s life from the unflinching perspective of a woman who witnessed firsthand the lasting damage done when the criminal justice system fails and puts an innocent man behind bars. Texas Senator Rodney Ellis, board member, Innocence Project, New York This is one of the best books I have read regarding criminal justice issues. I would recommend it to anyone interested in knowing more about our system of justice!

-Alex del Carmen, Ph.D., Professor & Director, Liberal and Fine Arts Program, Tarleton State University'. Genre: Political SciencePublisher: Simon and SchusterISBN10: 028Copyright Year: 2006-09-15File Format: PDF, EPUBFile Download: 320Price: FREEDESCRIPTION: A love story. An artistic journey. A matter of life and death. In 2000, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen embarked on a tour across America - one that would give them a glimpse of the darker side of the justice system and, at the same time, reveal to them just how resilient the human spirit can be. They were a pair of young actors from New York who wanted to learn more about our country's exonerated - men and women who had been sentenced to die for crimes they didn't commit, who spent anywhere from two to twenty-two years on death row, and who were freed amidst overwhelming evidence of their innocence. The result of their journey was The Exonerated, New York Times number one play of 2002, which was embraced by such acting luminaries as Ossie Davis, Richard Dreyfuss, Danny Glover, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and Robin Williams.

Living Justice is Jessica and Erik's fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of the creation of their play. A tale of artistic expression and political awakening, innocence lost and wisdom won, this is above all a story about two people who fall in love while pursuing their passion and learn - through the stories of the exonerated - what freedom truly means.

Genre: True CrimePublisher: Algonquin BooksISBN10: 104Copyright Year: 2005-10-14File Format: PDF, EPUBFile Download: 304Price: FREEDESCRIPTION: Fans of Serial and Making a Murderer, meet Kirk Bloodsworth, the first death row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence. Charged with the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1984, Bloodsworth was tried, convicted, and sentenced to die in Maryland's gas chamber. From the beginning, he proclaimed his innocence, but when he was granted a new trial because his prosecutors improperly withheld evidence, the second trial also resulted in conviction. Bloodsworth read every book on criminal law in the prison library and persuaded a new lawyer to petition for the then-innovative DNA testing.

After nine years in one of the harshest prisons in America, Bloodsworth was vindicated by DNA evidence. Intense and hard-hitting, Bloodsworth is the story of a man’s tireless fight against a justice system that failed him. Genre: HistoryPublisher: McSweeney'sISBN10: 919Copyright Year: 2015-10-01File Format: PDF, EPUBFile Download: 489Price: FREEDESCRIPTION: On September 30, 2003, Calvin was declared innocent and set free from Angola State Prison, after serving 22 years for a crime he did not commit.

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Like many other exonerees, Calvin experienced a new world that was not open to him. Hitting the streets without housing, money, or a change of clothes, exonerees across America are released only to fend for themselves. In the tradition of Studs Terkel's oral histories, this book collects the voices and stories of the exonerees for whom life — inside and out — is forever framed by extraordinary injustice.