By Priscilla Ann Ornido
The six members of Exoneree Band, Raymond Towler, William Michael Dillon, Antoine Day, Eddie Lowery, Alan Northrop and Ted Bradford, were collectively imprisoned for more than a century for crimes they did not commit. Though they live in different parts of the country, they share the experience of being wrongly incarcerated and exonerated.
The wrongly convicted men of the Exoneree Band prior to a concert in Bedford Heights. http://bit.ly/1E5adwQ
The group met at a 2011 conference for people wrongfully convicted of crimes. Most of them had written songs to perform individually until Dillon suggested that they perform together. Since then they have played a number of shows, especially in conjunction with the Innocence Network.
While their music helps to raise awareness about the struggles of exonerees, they also champion the cases of those who have received little attention, have yet to be compensated for their time in prison, or have yet to be exonerated.
“There are guys right now who are where we were,” Towler said. “We are playing the songs for those people.”
After walking free, many wanted to know how each of them felt. The entire band agrees – the music does a better job of explaining it.
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