The work combines first-person narrative with legal records to tell the stories of six wrongfully convicted inmates: Delbert Tibbs, Kerry Max Cook, Gary Gauger, David Keaton, Robert Earl Hayes and Sunny Jacobs, and their paths to freedom.
[2] The original cast was as follows:[1] During the summer of 2000, Jensen and Blank traveled to interview 40 former death row inmates who had been freed by the state after having served as much as 22 years in prison.
A revival of the play ran from September 19, 2012, to December 2, 2012, at the same theater, with a rotating cast that included Brian Dennehy, Stockard Channing, Delroy Lindo, Brooke Shields, and Lyle Lovett.
[7] In December 2002, the play was performed by a cast that included Richard Dreyfuss, Danny Glover and Mike Farrell, for Illinois Governor George Ryan, other politicians, and attorneys.
[8][9] Ryan was reviewing how to handle death row inmates in light of the publicity surrounding those who had been convicted during Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge's tenure, which ended when he was fired in 1993.
The cast consisted of James Washington, Laura Lockwood, Alphonso Walker Jr., Chelsea Davis, Mark Keeton, Tommy Norton, Greg Warren, Ruby Littman, Tyler Waage, and Sean Jarrel.