Kathy O’Brien is Steve ’s defense attorney. O’Brien is fairly humorless, but Steve feels as if she is the only person involved in the trial who actually wants to understand who Steve is as a person. Although O’Brien feels that their chances of winning the case are slim, she makes a genuine effort to defend Steve and display his good character, telling him that their main goal is to make …
May 11, 2021 · In Walter Dean Meyers's novel Monster, Steve Harmon is on trial for his life regarding the robbery and murder of Alguinaldo Nesbitt. During the trial, Steve's attorney, Kathy O'Brien, tries to...
Sandra Petrocelli Character Analysis. Sandra Petrocelli. Next. Asa Briggs. Sandra Petrocelli is the prosecutor in King and Steve ’s felony murder trial. Although Petrocelli claims to be working on behalf of truth and justice and American ideals, she immediately labels the defendants as “ monsters ,” prejudicing herself and the jury against them, and she often asks witnesses leading …
Petrocelli, Steve's lawyer, portrays Osvaldo as an unreliable witness who is simply testifying in order to receive a lighter sentence.
Osvaldo is a 14-year-old kid from Harlem and an admitted accomplice in the robbery that resulted in Mr. Nesbitt's felony murder.
Kathy O'BrienKathy O'Brien, Steve's lawyer, informs him on what will happen during the trial.
Asa BriggsAsa Briggs is James King's defense attorney. Briggs is an older man who often looks tired and seems to know that he is in a doomed position—King is obviously a criminal figure and nearly impossible to defend, especially since he is almost certainly guilty of Mr. Nesbitt's murder.
Monster CharactersSteve Harmon is the protagonist of the novel. ... Kathy O'Brien is Steve's defense lawyer. ... Sandra Petrocelli is the prosecutor, who employs coercive tactics and labels Steve a "monster."Asa Briggs is James King's defense lawyer, who pushes back against Petrocelli's tactics.More items...•Feb 25, 2021
O'Brien tells Steve that purely because he is a young black male, half the jury will already assume he is guilty from the moment they see him. Although O'Brien wants to defend Steve and understand who he is as a person, Steve senses that O'Brien does not truly believe he is innocent.
All throughout the trial, O'Brien has never hinted that she thought Steve was guilty and she always did her best to try and get justice for Steve. But this exposes her feelings about Steve that she wasn't able to express before.May 2, 2016
Cathy O'Brien (born December 4, 1957) is an American and author who has been a victim of a government mind control program called Project Monarch, which she alleges was part of the CIA's Project MKUltra.
Kathy O'Brien - She is Steve's defense attorney who uses his character traits before the crime and makes sure she distances him from the other defendants as way of getting a not guilty verdict.
Petrocelli claims that Bobo, Osvaldo, King, and Steve are all guilty. Steve is guilty because he failed to stop the robbery as the lookout—had he done his job, Nesbitt might still be alive. As for King, she says, he's guilty because he hangs out with the wrong kind of dudes and, as a result, Nesbitt is dead.
Betty Trevino I believe the reason O'Brien looks away from him is because she is recognizing the difference between "innocence" and being found "not guilty." The former is about lacking culpability and the other is about the justice system not having enough evidence to convict.
Kathy O'Brien tells Steve she needs the jury to see him in a certain way. How does she need the jury to regard Steve? She wants the jury to see Steve as a regular 16 yr. old boy; a human being who just got into some trouble.
She has made numerous deals with criminals in order to construct a convincing case against Steve and James King, and she preemptively labels the defendants “monsters” in an attempt to prejudice the jury.
Steve’s father is depicted as conscientious and well-intentioned but distant and even distrustful of his son, who has not lived up to his expectations. Steve does not think his father really believes he is innocent and feels that their relationship has suffered irreparable damage as a result of the trial.
He is largely silent, because his lawyer is convinced that his obvious guilt and lack of intelligence would cause him to incriminate himself if he were to speak. King is a foil to Steve, who once had a certain amount of respect for King’s tough demeanor but soon realizes that he is actually a powerless fool.
Steve’s mother is deep ly religious and tries to support her son with words from the Bible. She finds it impossible to hide her distress at seeing her son in prison, and she cannot stop breaking down and crying when she visits.
Osvaldo Cruz is a fourteen-year-old boy who is thought to be relatively innocent because of his youth, hence the fact that he is offered a plea bargain. However, he is already a gang member with a strong taste for violence and a much more menacing figure than Steve.
This naming is profoundly ironic, because there is nothing remotely monstrous about Steve. He is thoughtful, sensitive and creative, mainly interested in making film documentaries about his neighborhood. It is not clear whether Steve has some minimal involvement in the robbery.
Asa Briggs is James King’s defense lawyer, a tired and cynical older man who clearly knows that his client is guilty and does not particularly care. Like the other two lawyers, he represents the inherent corruption in the justice system, though he is not personally unethical. He does his job effectively, often engaging in heated arguments with Sandra Petrocelli over her manipulative practices and leading questions. A note of clarification: Asa Briggs is the name of a famous British social historian, who was still alive and writing when Monster was published.
Asa Briggs, the lawyer representing James King, points to this incentive and questions the objectivity and truthfulness of his account. In the detention center, both before and after the trial, Steve hears the sounds of fighting, and at night he hears a gang-rape taking place.
He employs the language of cinema, noting the camera angles, cuts, and other technical details of the scene. At the courthouse, Steve’s lawyer, Kathy O’Brien, explains that the prosecutor, Sandra Petrocelli, is seeking the death penalty against him for murder, claiming that he acted as a lookout during a drugstore robbery in which Mr. Nesbitt, the owner of the store, was shot. Although the robbery and the shooting were actually carried out by two older men, James King and Bobo Evans, Steve will also be legally culpable of murder if found guilty. Evidence is adduced that connects King and Evans to the murder, though the witness is a criminal who has been promised a reduced sentence for testifying. Steve listens to some of it while his mind occasionally flashes back to his childhood, which was full of violence despite his own attempts to avoid trouble.
Last Updated on February 25, 2021, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 1126. Monster follows the trial of sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon from Monday, July 6th, to Tuesday, July 14th, with the final chapter covering the verdict on Friday, July 17th. There is a short prologue in which Steve reflects on life in prison, which feels unreal to him.
Nesbitt caused extensive internal bleeding, meaning that he died by drowning in his own blood. Steve is horrified by this, but it does not seem to affect the rest of the court much.
He says that King pointed out Steve as their lookout and that, after Steve left the drugstore, he and King began fighting with Mr. Nesbitt. When Nesbitt pulled a gun, King managed to take it from him and shoot him with it, after which they both fled with money and cigarettes.
M onster by Walter Dean Myers is a 1999 novel about Steve Harmon, a sixteen-year-old boy on trial for his alleged complicity in a rob bery-turned-murder. Steve is accused of participating in a deadly drugstore robbery. While in prison awaiting trial, he decides to document his experience as a screenplay. The trial is heated, but the evidence ...
The final cinematic image is of Steve silhouetted in this posture, looking like “one of the pictures they use for psychological testing, or some strange beast, a monster.”. The screenplay ends here.
A white hand (O’BRIEN’s) takes the pencil from his hand and crosses out all the Monsters. Wednesday, July 8 Quotes. Miss O’Brien says that Petrocelli is using Bolden’s testimony as part of a trail that will lead to me and James King. I think she is wrong.
Sandra Petrocelli. Next. Asa Briggs. Sandra Petrocelli is the prosecutor in King and Steve ’s felony murder trial. Although Petrocelli claims to be working on behalf of truth and justice and American ideals, she immediately labels the defendants as “ monsters ,” prejudicing herself and the jury against them, and she often asks witnesses leading ...
In his notes, Steve records that O’Brien is angry today because Petrocelli is intentionally manipulating the jury, showing them the grisly photos of the crime scene again... (full context) Back in the screenplay, four witnesses testify on the stand while Petrocelli questions them.
She says that they are here to dispense justice—although most people... (full context) ...each “monster” out and tells him to believe in himself so the jury can, too.
Petrocelli’s questionable conduct suggests she is far more interested in winning the court case and bolstering her own career than she is in uncovering the truth of what happened with Mr. Nesbitt ’s murder, further suggesting that the justice system propagates lies and injustice.
If they see it as a contest between the defense and the prosecution as to who’s lying, they’ll vote for the prosecution. The prosecutor walks around looking very important. No one is accusing her of being a bad person. They’re accusing you of being a monster.
Petrocelli keeps asking leading questions, which both the judge and Briggs criticize. Osvaldo continues that he... (full context) Thursday, July 9th. Petrocelli continues questioning Osvaldo, who claims he participated in the robbery (his job was to stop... (full context) Friday, July 10th.