The true story of Maurice Henry Carter, who was wrongfully convicted and served 29 years for shooting a Benton Harbor police officer, was turned into a play that will be performed tonight and Sunday in the Lansing area. We speak with director Lisa Biggs, and Doug Tjapkes, the man who worked for ten years to help free Carter.
"Justice for Maurice Henry Carter" is a stage drama based on a true story of struggle and friendship. The two men who inspired the drama are Maurice Henry Carter, a man who was wrongfully convicted and served 29 years for shooting a Benton Harbor police officer, and Doug Tjapkes, the man who worked for ten years to free him.
Selections from the drama will be performed on the stage tonight at MSU’s Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH), and again on Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing.
Current State talks with Tjapkes and with the play’s director, Lisa Biggs, an assistant theatre and performance studies professor at RCAH.