When he returned to jail, the deal was that he get a pardon after 90 days. After 90 days, The parole board then turned him down and extended the sentence to one year. Then his brother pleaded for him to take the offer. Yet, after one year, the sentence was indefinite. What happened? Why did the parole board go against their own deal?
shareare you kidding me? the spoiler is in the title! either put the warning before your question or change the title of the topic.
jesus christ...
Because they never intended to release him in the 1st place.
shareIt's Georgia.... they didn't know how to count properly >:)
shareThe author of the source book (and the film's "incognito" consultant) wasn't entirely guiltless and there was really no way to portray his story and make himself look entirely innocent throughout the tale without painting everything with a broad brush and fudging on some details.
I'm not saying the person on whom Paul Muni's character is based was an out-and-out criminal, but he did bring much of the railroading on himself; this important fact is simply glossed over in the movie in order to appeal to the sympathies of the movie audience. And it pretty much worked!
Okay folks, show's over, nothing to see here!
The governor of the State of Georgia had a vindictive urge to keep Allen in prison for the rest of his life, since Allen had made Georgia look bad in the north. One thing you learn about power is that the powerful make their own rules. "Your 90 days are up? Oh sorry, we forget to tell you. That 90 days was only a suggestion which we don't have to follow."
Evil and capricious behavior such as this is what drives some individuals to deeply hate the government and eventually take up arms against it, as in "The Mark of Zorro", "A Tale of Two Cities", "The Patriot", "Braveheart", etc.
I don't know if they wanted to keep him in prison for life, but at least complete his sentence.
Those three prison board members already had their minds made up before the case was presented and all had glares on their face. The one I particularly despised was the man with curly gray hair, heavy face makeup, and a persistent scowl and was sitting in the middle. I would have told them off myself if I was the brother or Allen's lawyer
But if Allen refused to go back to the chain gang, I guess he still would have been incarcerated in Chicago
They only told Him He was to get 90 days, only so He would turn Himself in. And, why would they? He escaped. His sentence wasn't up then. It wasn't like Les Miserables, when Jean Valjean was being hunted by the Prison Warden, because He didn't turn Himself in for Parole.
shareThere's no way you could've gotten a binding deal on something like that. Pardons are completely discretionary and can't be subject to a quid pro quo
share