Wrongful Conviction in Film: Shawshank, Green Mile & Hurricane

Introduction: Three Films, One Common Theme

Films may have in common performers, directors, or subject matter. The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Hurricane share several things. All three follow the stories of men wrongly convicted of murder. Two of the films — The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile — were adapted from original works by the same author, Stephen King, and directed by the same person, Frank Darabont. Beyond those production connections, all three films share a deeper theme: they are stories about individuals who have been judged because of the way they look.

The Green Mile: John Coffey and Misjudged Innocence

In The Green Mile, John Coffey, played by Michael Clarke Duncan, is on death row after being found guilty of murdering two young white girls. "The Green Mile" is the name given to the death row corridor at Coal Mountain Louisiana State Penitentiary. Coffey, a Black man, was found holding the broken bodies of the two dead girls, and despite his protestations of innocence, he is convicted and sentenced to death. The story is told in flashback by Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), the head guard on death row. Edgecomb comes to believe his newest charge is innocent when he witnesses the goodness within him — he is able to look past the obvious appearances.

Coffey is an imposing figure, and a jury in 1930s Louisiana would have had little difficulty believing such a man capable of the crime. It turns out that Coffey has been completely misjudged. Not only is he not evil, but he possesses a gift of healing, able to cure people through the laying on of hands. As critic Roger Ebert observes, "Coffey cannot read or write, seems simpleminded, causes no trouble and exudes goodness. The reason Paul consults the lawyer is because he comes to doubt this prisoner could have killed the little girls" (Ebert, "The Green Mile"). One reviewer even drew a parallel between John Coffey and a major historical figure who shares his initials: "The film includes a high level of Judeo-Christian spiritual content, and some of the symbolism is spread on a little thickly. Those who can't see similarities between The Green Mile's J.C. and an historical figure with the same initials are wearing blinders" (Berardinelli, "The Green Mile").

The Hurricane: Rubin Carter and Racial Injustice

In The Hurricane, a gifted boxer is wrongly convicted of murder in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1966. Like John Coffey in The Green Mile, the victim is a powerful Black man. Unlike Coffey, however, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, played brilliantly by Denzel Washington, is not a fictional character. This is the story of Carter, a championship fighter framed for a murder he did not commit. Carter grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, a middle son among seven children. His parents had a stable, long-lasting marriage, provided well for the family, and raised their other six children without significant problems. Only Rubin appears to have acquired a criminal record, which resulted in his being sentenced to a juvenile reformatory for assault and robbery shortly after his fourteenth birthday.

At age seventeen, Carter escaped from the reformatory in 1954 and joined the United States Army. Several months after completing infantry basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was shipped to Germany, where he became interested in boxing. By all accounts, Carter was a poor soldier and was court-martialed four times on charges ranging from insubordination to being AWOL. In May 1956, the Army discharged him as "unfit for military service," well before his scheduled date of separation.

Shortly after his return to New Jersey, Carter was arrested for his reformatory escape and served an additional year. He was released in 1957. Less than two months later, Carter robbed and brutally beat three people, including a middle-aged woman, allegedly after drinking heavily. Convicted of these crimes, he spent four years in Trenton State Prison and Rahway State Prison. Upon his release in September 1961, he became a professional boxer.

The film's story centers on Carter's claim that he ran afoul of a corrupt Paterson police officer as a youth and was later framed for murder by that same officer, by then a lieutenant. Convicted on false evidence and perjured testimony, Carter spends nineteen years in Trenton State Prison, despite pleas from celebrities and a 1975 song by Bob Dylan. His appeals exhausted, Carter appears destined to spend the rest of his life behind bars — until new evidence is uncovered that leads to his release. The convictions were set aside on the grounds that he had not received a fair trial. The State of New Jersey decided not to retry him a third time, given how much time had passed, and withdrew the indictments against him.

The real hero of the film is Lesra Martin, played by Vicellous Shannon, a Brooklyn teenager living on a commune in Canada. After reading Carter's autobiography, The 16th Round, he develops a passion to meet Carter. Encouraged by the three adults he lives with — Sam (Liev Schreiber), Terry (John Hannah), and Lisa (Deborah Unger) — he opens a correspondence with Carter. He eventually travels to New Jersey to visit Carter, and following their face-to-face meeting, Lesra becomes determined to free him. The four ultimately move to New Jersey and uncover the evidence that clears Carter.

As in The Green Mile, the Black victim is convicted of murder and becomes the victim of "racism, corruption and — perhaps most wounding — indifference" (Ebert, "The Hurricane"). Unlike The Green Mile, however, this story has a happy ending. After Carter's release, at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival, Rubin Carter was present to watch the film and delivered a ten-minute speech to the audience. "More than two hours later, when the film's final frame had faded to black, The Hurricane received a rousing, three-minute standing ovation. The applause was well-deserved" (Berardinelli, "The Hurricane").

Conclusion: The Lesson of Appearance and Judgment

In their different ways, each of these three movies shows us how wrong we can be when we judge an individual by the way he or she looks. Whether through the supernatural gentleness of John Coffey, the historical injustice suffered by Rubin Carter, or the quiet endurance of Andy Dufresne, all three films carry the same warning against the dangers of prejudging a person by appearances. In the end, it does not really matter whether the stories are true. What matters are the lessons they teach us.

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