How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
"In all my years at Shawshank, there have been less than ten men whom I believed when they told me they were innocent. Andy Dufresne was one of them." (9)
King sets the ground rules fairly early by telling us that Andy's innocent. It makes the ugly things that happen to him sting all the more.
Quote #2
"If he had cried on the witness stand, or if his voice had thickened and grown hesitant, even if he had gotten yelling at that Washingtonbound District Attorney, I don't believe he would have gotten the life sentence he wound up with." (20)
Andy declares his own innocence, but in a very calculated and (as the book says elsewhere) cold way. The jury seems to be reacting to Andy's personality rather than the facts of the case.
Quote #3
"They are to prison society what the rapist is to the society outside the walls. They're usually long-timers, doing hard bullets for brutal crimes. Their prey is the young, the weak, and the inexperienced or, as in the case of Andy Dufresne, the weak-looking." (81)
The sisters target people they think they can take. Not a lot of deliberation or discrimination there, just folks who look like victims. The sisters symbolize everything that's awful in the prison, so it's no surprise that they're so unjust.