Exonerees Use Their Music to Shine Light on Wrongful Convictions

For many exonerees, the Innocence Network Conference provides a unique chance to connect with other men and women who have been confronted with and survived the unimaginable experience of being wrongfully convicted. For one group of exonerees, however, the conference has also served as a jumping-off point for a special musical collaboration that they’re using to spread the word on injustice in the criminal justice system.

According to an article published on Thursday on

Ohio.com

, six exonerees—Raymond Towler, William Michael Dillon, Antoine Day, Eddie Lowery, Alan Northrop and Ted Bradford—are members of the Exoneree Band. A creative vehicle for the men’s shared love of music, the band also “provides an outlet for the emotions that come from their struggles as innocent men incarcerated. It’s a way to explain how they survived and continue to deal with their lost youths, adjusting to life in a changed world and for some, to be properly compensated for the injustice they suffered,” reports

Ohio.com

. Collectively, the men spent more than 100 years in prison for crimes other people committed.

Formed in 2011, the Exoneree Band plays at Innocence Project and Innocence Network-related gatherings and, when it’s possible for the group to come together—it’s members live in different cities across the country—it performs at other venues.  The group performed at several events in Ohio this week.

Members of the Exoneree Band want to use their music—which includes original songs that they’ve written—to educate people about the countless people who have been accused and convicted of crimes they did not commit, reports

Ohio.com

.

Eddie Lowery released a

solo album

earlier this year. “I’d like to make a career of it. . . . And live the life I was dreaming of before I went to prison,” Lowery said, according to

Ohio.com

.

“Yeah, we’re all trying to live the dream,” William Michal Dillon said to Ohio.com. “We gotta live it now because we can’t get it back.”

The Exoneree Band will perform tonight at an event for the Federal Bar Association.

Read the entire story

here

.