CLEVELAND — This Friday, six wrongfully convicted men will take the stage at Playhouse Square to share their stories in a new true-crime stage play called "The Lynched Among Us."
“This is the struggle. This is the dark times and the emergence from that,” said Alfred Cleveland, a man who was wrongfully convicted and served 26 years in prison.
Cleveland and Lamont Clark said they’re speaking their truth to take back their stories after Clark said it was stolen in courtrooms.
“We called our play 'The Lynched Among Us' because it was like a modern-day lynching. People will make an allegation. They will mob up, go get the person and do what they have to do them,” said Clark, another wrongfully convicted man who served 23 years in prison.
Based on a true-crime stage play, the men said The Lynched Among Us will reveal each man’s blood, sweat and tears to overcome a broken system and fight for what they said some may think is an overnight success.
“They didn’t see the denials. They didn’t see how many times he got turned down at the parole board,” said Cleveland.
But Cleveland and Charles Jackson, owner of SweetRoz Ice Cream Parlor in Euclid, said it’s worth exposing their pain to try to educate and save others.
“Somebody needs to bring their kids to watch our play and all our stories, they’re going to resonate with somebody, and somebody is going to get something out of it,” said Jackson, a wrongfully convicted man who served 27 years in prison.
Although it’s been years since each man’s release, Cleveland and Clark said they’re still fighting their wrongful convictions even after serving more than 20 years each for crimes they say they did not commit.
Meanwhile, Jackson, Laurese Glover, RuEl Sailor and Michael Sutton have all been exonerated from their wrongful convictions, which each cost them between 15 to 27 years of lost time.
“When my case was committed, I had a full ride to college. It was my prom weekend, so whenever I speak, I always like to talk to the youth, and I feel like me being so young… I didn’t know at the age of 17 I could go to jail for the rest of my life,” said Sutton, a wrongfully convicted man who served 15 years in prison.
For Jerome Chambers, he said he was wrongfully convicted too and served his time, so he hopes to shine a light on the flaws he said are within the system as an actor and co-director of this play.
“This is healing, this is brotherhood, this is the images of strong black men that need to be seen in the media,” said Chambers.
If you can’t make it this Friday, there is another opportunity on Sept. 26 in Cincinnati at the School of Creative and Performing Arts.
