The Exonerated

Tonight I’m catching Frank Theater‘s anti-death penalty play The Exonerated, and at the tail-end of its run. Cards on the table: If there’s any residue of my lapsed Catholicism it’s my unequivocal opposition to the death penalty. And I’ve been active on this front, if only as a consumer of art. A few years back however, I did make it to a fundraiser for some local anti-death penalty attorneys; low and behold, that’s where I met the movement’s superhero, Mr. Rubin Hurricane Carter. I just watched the seminal anti-death penalty documentary The Thin Blue Line, thanks to my usual movie hookup. Very recently, the New York Times Magazine ran an article about the various botched lethal injections that have gone on; I read it with interest, occasionally setting down the paper to shout things to the person in closest proximity. I will report back on The Exonerated, but I’m afraid I can’t be entirely objective.