The Exonerated | Essays and Criticism

  • The Operation of the Criminal Justice System

    Aubrey holds a Ph.D. in English and has published many essays on drama. In the following essay, he discusses the ways in which the operation of the criminal justice system may result in innocent people being convicted.

  • Imprisonment and Capital Punishment

    Dyer holds a Ph.D. in English literature and has published extensively on literature, film, and television. He is also a freelance university teacher, writer, and educational consultant. In the following essay, he analyzes The Exonerated in terms of philosopher Michel Foucault’s discussion of imprisonment and capital punishment in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975).

  • Review by Brian Gilmore

    In the following review, Gilmore comments on the docu-style presentation and the “relentless first-person testimony” that engulfs observers in The Exonerated, forcing them to examine the play’s controversial topic.

  • Review by Terry Stoller

    In the following review, Stoller notes that audiences were emotionally aroused by the “deeply affecting material” presented by the cast of The Exonerated, a play that exposed the injustices that resulted in the imprisonment and near execution of innocent people.

  • Delbert Tibbs - A Man Wrongly Accused and Sentenced to Death

    In the following essay, Cohen focuses on Delbert Tibbs, a man wrongly accused and sentenced to death, and his struggle with the legal system and the weak evidence against him.