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Summary: Tuesday, July 14th (Steve’s Testimony)

In his notebook, Steve records an hour-long meeting with O’Brien. She is worried about how to separate Steve from King in the minds of the jury. Steve is scared. The trouble he is in keeps looming larger and larger. He looks out a window, noticing that it’s a nice day and the streets are filled with people. O’Brien and Steve are due to start presenting their case tomorrow. Steve wishes his brother Jerry were with him. He now understands why guards take the inmates’ belts and shoelaces. O’Brien asks Steve to make a list of the people he loves and who love him. Steve lists his film teacher, Mr. Sawicki, twice.

The screenplay resumes with a courtroom scene. Briggs is presenting the case for King. Dorothy Moore, a cousin of King, testifies that King had visited her on the day of the robbery and murder, but Petrocelli draws out inconsistencies in Moore’s story. Briggs’s next witness, George Nipping, testifies that King is left-handed. O’Brien explains to Steve that the fatal wound was on the left side, so the shooter was probably right-handed, but that this argument doesn’t do much to support King’s case. In a flashback scene, Mr. Sawicki reminds Steve to keep a movie’s story simple. Too many unimportant details reveal that your story is weak.

O’Brien tells Steve he will have to take the stand and put some distance between himself and King. Steve has to present himself as the type of person the jurors can believe and trust. O’Brien coaches Steve on how to answer questions on the stand. They play a game in which she turns a cup down if she doesn’t like Steve’s answers and up if she does. The screenplay fades to black and then to the interior of Steve’s cell. It is nighttime. The inmates talk about lying and telling the truth. One inmate says that truth is for the street. In here, he adds, you say and do what you need to say and do to survive. The next morning, as Steve dresses for court, the screenplay shows that his hand is swollen.

Back in court, Steve takes the witness stand. He testifies that he did not take part in the drugstore robbery or discuss it with anyone before it happened. In cross-examination, Steve testifies that he knows King from the neighborhood, but only in a casual way. He claims he has said hi to Bobo Evans but never had a conversation with him. Steve knows Osvaldo Cruz better, but their friendship is casual. He denies being in the drugstore on the day of the crime. When Petrocelli presses Steve hard about where he was, he says he was walking around making mental notes for a movie.

O’Brien puts George Sawicki on the stand. Sawicki testifies that Steve has been in his film club for three years and that Steve is a respectable, trustworthy young man. Petrocelli gets Sawicki to admit that he does not live in Steve’s neighborhood, but Sawicki also says that he knows the neighborhood through Steve’s film footage. Sawicki states that he believes in Steve’s honesty as a filmmaker and as a person. The two defense lawyers, O’Brien and Briggs, rest their cases.

Analysis: Tuesday, July 14th (Steve’s Testimony)

Steve’s July 14 notebook entry shows Steve becoming overwhelmed by his troubles and feeling detached from the real world. The entry is dated July 14. After that handwritten note, the story is told through only the screenplay. The action takes place over more than one day. Steve looks down at the tiny people in the street and mentally reviews the events of the past year. He feels more depressed than he has since he’s been in jail. His understanding of why the guards take inmates’ belts and shoelaces suggests thoughts of suicide.

In both the notebook entry and the screenplay, the relationship between Steve and O’Brien changes from being lawyer and client to being collaborators. According to O’Brien, Briggs will try to connect King and Steve in the jury’s minds. She tells Steve they must do the opposite and put distance between him and King. O’Brien also explains why she must be careful not to attack King too much. The lawyers’ strategies suggest that the legal system relies on gamesmanship as much as evidence. Clients—in this case, Steve and King—might be considered the pawns in the game. Even so, Steve is now taking part in his own defense, and O’Brien addresses Steve as an adult.

Briggs presents King’s case first but calls witnesses who do little to help his client. Through deliberate but illegitimate questioning, Petrocelli creates the image of King as a killer. Again, strategy rules the day. With that image implanted in the minds of the jury, O’Brien realizes that Steve has to take the stand, look the jury in the face, and say he’s innocent.

The next two scenes deal with the issue of lying. O’Brien coaches Steve on how he should answer questions on the witness stand. In the paper cup game that they play, O’Brien evaluates Steve’s answers by their probable effect on the jury, not by whether they are true. She is coaching Steve on how to hedge the truth or even lie in order to look innocent. The scene that follows shows Steve in a jail cell with other inmates, discussing truth. O’Brien and the inmate who says that truth doesn’t matter have the same cynical attitude toward truth and the justice system.

On the witness stand, Steve demonstrates that O’Brien and his fellow prisoners have taught him well about the limitations of telling the truth. Steve denies almost everything about his association with the robbery and everyone else connected to it. He denies acting as a lookout for the robbery. He denies having discussed the robbery with anyone, testimony that directly contradicts a scene in Steve’s screenplay. He also lies about his previous conversations with King. When Steve returns to his seat, he is shaken and nervous, a reaction that suggests he is not comfortable with what he said under oath. Steve has a swollen hand when he appears on the stand, implying that Steve had to fight someone in his cell and reminding the reader of the perils waiting for Steve if his case fails.

Mr. Sawicki’s testimony about Steve’s character adds strength to Steve’s defense by making Steve more human and by separating him from King in the jury’s mind. Sawicki’s testimony states that he believes Steve is an honest person. This declaration makes not only Steve’s testimony but also Steve’s screenplay more credible. As the defense rest, there is a glimpse of hope for Steve’s future.

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