Detroit

GPT production of ‘The Exonerated’ shares stories of people wrongfully convicted and imprisoned

By K. Michelle Moran
C & G Staff Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Photo by A Slice of Life Photography, courtesy of Grosse Pointe Theatre Cast members of the Grosse Pointe Theatre’s production of “The Exonerated” include, from left, Jerry Nehr, Alan Canning, the Rev. Ron Spann and Thomas Wilson. The drama tells the story of several wrongfully convicted death row inmates, in their own words. Photo by A Slice of Life Photography, courtesy of Grosse Pointe Theatre Cast members of the Grosse Pointe Theatre’s production of “The Exonerated” include, from left, Jerry Nehr, Alan Canning, the Rev. Ron Spann and Thomas Wilson. The drama tells the story of several wrongfully convicted death row inmates, in their own words.

DETROIT — The voices in “The Exonerated” — a play by Erik Jenson and Jessica Blank — are the actual recollections of people falsely accused and imprisoned for crimes.

It’s a show that hits unfortunately close to home for Tom Barrow. The business and civic leader, a former Detroit mayoral candidate, spent 18 months in prison for tax evasion and fraud after he was wrongfully convicted in 1994. So when Barrow learned that Grosse Pointe Theatre was producing “The Exonerated” at the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House last February, he wanted to see it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a ticket — all six performances by GPT offshoot the Purdon Studio Theatre were sold out.

But Barrow isn’t one to back down to a challenge. Believing this show was important for a wider audience to see, he approached GPT and the play’s director, and asked if they’d be willing to mount a second production. And so, at 8 p.m. Feb. 10-11 and 2 p.m. Feb. 12, audiences will get another chance to see “The Exonerated,” this time at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, inside the General Motors Theatre.

With 378 seats — as opposed to about 100, with standing room, at the Ford House — the General Motors Theater is considerably larger, while still being relatively intimate. Barrow, who is executive producing the show after securing rights to the play through his Citizens for Detroit’s Future group, said he selected this venue because of its size and the opportunity to keep ticket prices reasonable.

“I believe that people, regardless of color, would be drawn to the venue as well as the play, like I was, as the events in the production speak to everyone,” said Barrow in an email interview. “Because Black History Month is a focal period, I thought that would be the perfect time to do the production.”

In an email interview, director Lois Bendler of St. Clair Shores urged people to see the show, even if they caught last year’s production, vowing that this will be “an entirely new experience and well worth the trip.”

Barrow, a CPA, founded and still runs his own public accounting firm, Barrow, Aldridge & Co. — one of several business ventures. A former appointee to the State Board of Accountancy, he later became its president and chair. He’s also the founder of the community group Citizens for Detroit’s Future, which he launched in 1985. Barrow and his wife, Patrice, live on Detroit’s east side with their two adolescent children.

After years of battling to overturn his conviction, a judge finally supported his assertion in 2008; Barrow is now awaiting final exoneration from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He insists he’s “not bitter,” but it has taken years to rebuild his business and his reputation.

Bendler, a longtime GPT actress, designer and member, wanted to stage this show last year because of its exploration of social issues. At 82, the great-grandmother is finishing her bachelor’s degree with a double major in theater and peace and conflict studies at Wayne State University.

The cast includes the Rev. Canon Ron Spann of Detroit, the Spirituality Center director and a priest associate at Christ Church Grosse Pointe. Spann plays poet and former seminary student Delbert Tibbs, who’s now an anti-capital punishment activist in Chicago, and Spann got in touch with Tibbs to prepare for this role. Sharron Nelson of Grosse Pointe plays Sunny Jacobs, a woman who was convicted with her husband in the shooting of two police officers. Her husband was executed before the couple was later found innocent.

Other cast members include Thomas Wilson of Detroit, Kirkland Williams of Grosse Pointe, Jerry Nehr of Grosse Pointe Woods and Alan Canning of Bloomfield Hills as men falsely convicted of various crimes and sent to death row. Relatives, police, friends, attorneys and judges are portrayed by Don Couture of Harrison Township, Peter Di Sante of St. Clair Shores, Heather Neely of Detroit and Pat O’Brien of Grosse Pointe Park.

Barrow said he was “spiritually drawn to the play” because of his own experiences. He said IRS agents finally admitted they inserted false numbers into his accounts.

“My hope is that people will learn that while government itself is not bad, it is the exercise of power by ordinary people which can be readily abused,” he wrote. “I am hopeful that the people who see this incredible play will learn to have a healthy distrust of authority while at the same time respecting that authority and the right for the power it has to be exercised reasonably under the law. I am hopeful that people will come to understand that absent DNA, many wrongfully convicted white collar people remain wrongfully languishing in America’s prisons.”

Bendler said she was “pleased and gratified” that Barrow wanted to mount a second production of the show.

“I was thrilled for the opportunity to expose a larger audience to the important message of ‘The Exonerated,’” she wrote. “That is, that many people have been imprisoned and executed for crimes they did not commit. I’m proud that the state of Michigan has outlawed capital punishment, but others have not. The horrific consequence is that innocent people are still legally killed by state governments. ‘The Exonerated’ is a powerful statement against capital punishment.”

In an interview last year, Nelson — whose character wasn’t freed until 1992, almost 15 years after evidence proving her innocence emerged — said she read everything she could find about Sunny Jacobs.

“It is an emotionally challenging place to go,” Nelson said. “Whatever you’re doing right now, stop and imagine at this very moment being wrongfully whisked away to prison and sentenced to death, and imagine that while you’re in prison, your baby and son grow up without their parents and probably always wonder, did you do it? And then, imagine your parents dying while you’re in prison and then never seeing your soulmate (and) husband again, (because) he dies a brutal death in prison for a crime he didn’t commit either.”

This production isn’t a fundraiser — Barrow is hoping to just break even on costs to stage it. But if there is any money left over after those expenses, he said it would go toward GPT and Citizens for Detroit’s Future.

The production marks a partnership between urban and suburban cultural organizations.

“I am moved by this play — not only by the message, but by the hard work I am witnessing being put in by the actors and the director,” Barrow said. “In addition, I firmly believe that bridging the city-suburban divide, as our community group is doing with the Grosse Pointe Theatre and the people of Grosse Pointe, is a major step to erasing the imaginary cultural divide between the city of Detroit and our suburbs’ cultural attractions. While I am big on culture and love art, the museum and the symphony, it is my hope that this will be the first of many introductions by our organization to the cultural jewels which comprise the city of Detroit and its suburban neighbors.”

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is located at 315 E. Warren in Detroit’s Cultural Center. Tickets for “The Exonerated” are $17 and $30; special tickets for an opening night performance afterglow at Barrow’s home on the Detroit River cost $100. For tickets or more information, call Citizens for Detroit’s Future at (313) 5DETROIT (533-8764) or GPT at (313) 881-4004, or visit www.aRealLifeProduction.com.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer K. Michelle Moran at kmoran@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1047.