The Exonerated is a film that dramatizes the stories of six people who had been wrongfully convicted of murder, but were later exonerated and freed after varying years of imprisonment, where many were subjected to further brutality and degradation. It was based on a play of the same name written by Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank and first aired on the CourtTV cable television network on January 27, 2005.

Actors played the roles of the five men and one woman. The script was based on the experiences of the exonerees as well as court records and media accounts. After a successful national tour, a film version directed by Bob Balaban was produced by Radical Media and sold to TimeWarner, Inc., the parent company of CourtTV.

Blank, who is married to Jensen, got the idea for the play when she moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota to New York City. She and Jensen attended a conference about the death penalty and listened to stories about wrongful convictions and confessions gained via torture, threats and deception. The couple spent the summer of 2000 interviewing exonerees throughout the United States and adapted the stories of six people into a script.

The play was first presented in New York City; the final performance was in Minneapolis in 2002.

For their efforts, Jensen and Blank received the Champion of Justice Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. http://www.nacdl.org/public.nsf/freeform/Awards?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=5#_Section5