Alfred Cleveland wants people who watch his play, “The Lynched Among Us,” to be outraged.

Cleveland is a co-founder of Voices of Injustice, a group of men who were wrongfully convicted or are fighting to prove their innocence.  

The play, which amplifies the personal stories of exonerees and wrongful convictions, debuted this month at Cleveland State University College of Law. It includes a blend of personal monologues, raps and skits based on real life events.  

When they got out of prison, many of the wrongfully convicted men involved with the group leaned on one another for support. Voices of Injustice formed organically from that support system, Cleveland said.

“We said, let’s come together. We’re stronger together. We’re more powerful together,” he said. “And let’s find a way where we can spread our message and tell our stories a little more aggressively.”

“We felt it was our time to just take the steering wheel and do our own representation of wrongful conviction,” Ru-El Sailor told Signal Cleveland. Sailor owns the Comma Club Collections clothing store, where he hosts Voices of Injustice meetings and rehearsals.  

Cleveland, who wrote and directed the play, said he wants audience members to feel called to action. He wants people to vote, especially for judges and local elected leaders who impact the criminal legal system. He wants people to be part of a jury. Cleveland also wants people to get involved in holding police officers and prosecutors accountable when they’re involved in a wrongful conviction. And he wants to raise awareness about wrongful convictions and show people, through these stories, what happens in the criminal legal system. 

For Sailor, the more than 300 people who watched the play earlier this month are already raising awareness. 

“We put 300 conversations out that night,” Sailor said. “That’s how I look at it. Everybody who left there went home and told somebody they went to that play. That’s 600 people guaranteed that night talking about wrongful convictions.” 

Ultimately, the men want their stories to lead to an end to wrongful convictions.

“My goal in all this is just to help other brothers that are either going through what I went through or prevent other people from going through what I went through,” said Sailor, who was accused of a shooting served more than 15 years before he was released in 2018.

On Nov. 4, the group will perform the play at Warrensville Heights High School. Students will watch a PG-13 version of the play during the school day and parents and other community members can watch the play at 6 p.m. Tickets are on sale on Eventbrite. 

Cleveland wants the play to serve as a cautionary tale for students so they can avoid putting themselves in a situation where they may end up incarcerated, he said. 

Voices of Injustice members are also slated to perform the play in Columbus at the Lincoln Theater in February.