In the film “The Shawshank Redemption” (as well as the short story by Stephen King on which it’s based), banker Andy Dufresne is wrongfully convicted and sent to prison for murdering his wife. 

Even when exculpatory evidence is brought to the corrupt warden’s attention, Dufresne remains in prison until he finally breaks out through a miles-long tunnel he had dug over decades, and in front of which he had hung a rotating series of posters of pin-up girls. Dufresne ends up on a beach in Mexico.

But real life isn’t a movie, and most people who are sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit, don’t get out.

Especially in New York.

Current law makes it exceedingly difficult to present new evidence — but a bill wending its way through the legislature may change that. 

“Let’s take that example (of the Shawshank Redemption), even if the warden was not corrupted and wanted to help Andy, it’s still a question, if Andy Dufresne was convicted in a New York State criminal court, whether he would have the wherewithal to get before a judge and present evidence of his innocence,” Assemblyman Dan Quart told Capital Tonight.

The so-called Wrongful Conviction Bill (Quart A98/ Myrie S266) would ensure that those seeking to overthrow a conviction will have a right to a hearing, to discovery, or to an appeal. It’s currently in committee in both houses of the legislature.

New York ranks third in the nation in confirmed wrongful convictions. There have been 303 people exonerated since 1989, according to Assemblyman Quart.