CREATIVE TEAM

Composer | Scott Davenport Richards
Librettist | David Cote
Based on the book Blind Injustice by Mark Godsey and casework by the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati College of Law
Director and Dramaturg | Robin Guarino
Conductor | Ted Sperling

ABOUT THE SHOW

This inspiring new 90-minute opera follows the Ohio Innocence Project’s efforts to overturn the convictions of six men, women, and teens who were wrongly imprisoned for violent crimes they didn’t commit:

• Nancy Smith, a school bus driver convicted of molesting children at the height of the “nursery school hysteria” sweeping the nation. Imprisoned for 15 years.

• The “East Cleveland 3”, teenage boys convicted of murder, identified solely by their gender and race. Imprisoned for 19 years.

• Clarence Elkins, convicted of the murder and rape of his mother-in-law and his niece, based on vague testimony by a traumatized child. Imprisoned for six years. The actual perpetrator ultimately confessed.

• Rickey Jackson, convicted of murder and robbery based on the coerced testimony of a child who, after Jackson was imprisoned for 39 years and sent to Death Row, played a key role in his release.

Featuring an operatic score infused with jazz, gospel, funk, and hip-hop, and a libretto drawn substantially from the exonerees’ own words, this timely and riveting production asks “What makes a person strong enough to endure injustice? What makes a person free?”