Shawshank Redemption Page #2

ANDY:

No. I was sobering up. I realized

she wasn't worth it. I decided to

let her have her quickie divorce.

D.A.

Quickie divorce indeed. A .38

caliber divorce, wrapped in a

handtowel to muffle the shots,

isn't that what you mean? And then

you shot her lover!

ANDY:

I did not. I got back in the car

and drove home to sleep it off.

Along the way, I stopped and threw

my gun into the Royal River. I feel

I've been very clear on this point.

D.A.

Yes, you have. Where I get hazy,

though, is the part where the

cleaning woman shows up the next

morning and finds your wife and her

lover in bed, riddled with .38

caliber bullets. Does that strike

you as a fantastic coincidence, Mr.

Dufresne, or is it just me?

ANDY:

(softly)

Yes. It does.

D.A.

I'm sorry, Mr. Dufresne, I don't

think the jury heard that.

ANDY:

Yes. It does.

D.A.

Does what?

ANDY:

Strike me as a fantastic coincidence.

D.A.

On that, sir, we are in accord...

FADE TO BLACK! 4TH TITLE UP

D.A.

You claim you threw your gun into

the Royal River before the murders

took place. That's rather convenient.

ANDY:

It's the truth.

D.A.

You recall Lt. Mincher's testimony?

He and his men dragged that river

for three days and nary a gun was

found. So no comparison can be made

between your gun and the bullets

taken from the bloodstained corpses

of the victims. That's also rather

convenient, isn't it, Mr. Dufresne?

ANDY:

(faint, bitter smile)

Since I am innocent of this crime,

sir, I find it decidedly inconvenient

the gun was never found.

FADE TO BLACK:
STH TITLE UP

6INT -- COURTROOM -- DAY (1946) 6

The D.A. holds the jury spellbound with his closing summation:

D.A.

Ladies and gentlemen, you've heard

all the evidence, you know all the

facts. We have the accused at the

scene of the crime. We have foot

prints. Tire tracks. Bullets

scattered on the ground which bear

his fingerprints. A broken bourbon

bottle, likewise with fingerprints.

Most of all, we have a beautiful

young woman and her lover lying

dead in each other's arms. They had

sinned. But was their crime so

great as to merit a death sentence?

He gestures to Andy sitting quietly with his ATTORNEY.

D.A.

I suspect Mr. Dufresne's answer to

that would be yes. I further

suspect he carried out that

sentence on the night of September

21st, this year of our Lord, 1946,

by pumping four bullets into his

wife and another four into Glenn

Quentin. And while you think about

that, think about this...

He picks up a revolver, spins the cylinder before their eyes

like a carnival barker spinning a wheel of fortune.

D.A.

A revolver holds six bullets, not

eight. I submit to you this was not

a hot-blooded crime of passion!

That could at least be understood,

if not condoned. No, this was

revenge of a much more brutal and

cold-blooded nature. Consider! Four

bullets per victim! Not six shots

fired, but eight! That means he

fired the gun empty...and then

stopped to reload so he could shoot

each of them again! An extra bullet

per lover...right in the head.

(a few JURORS shiver)

I'm done talking. You people are

all decent, God-fearing Christian

folk. You know what to do.

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