"You're young, you're Black, and you're on trial. What else do they need to know?"

Miss O'Brien, Steve's lawyer, tells him. She makes it clear that Steve's case will be hard to win, if for no other reason than the common belief that young black males are likely to be guilty of violent crimes. Early on in Monster, Steve suspects that Miss O'Brien thinks the case will be tough to win not only because he is a young black male but because she believes he is guilty of the crime with which he has been charged.

Even so, she is smart and cagey and does her best to separate Steve from James King and the other parties involved in the murder. She wants the jury to think that the others were merely passing acquaintances of Steve. She succeeds, but after the acquittal is announced, "STEVE turns...