Monster (4 page)

Wednesday, July 8

They take away your shoelaces and your belt so you can't kill yourself no matter how bad it is. I guess making you live is part of the punishment.

It's funny, but when I'm sitting in the courtroom, I don't feel like I'm involved in the case. It's like the lawyers and the judge and everybody are doing a job that involves me, but I don't have a role. It's only when I go back to the cells that I know I'm involved.

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. I think they are bringing out all of these people and letting them look terrible on the stand and sound terrible and then reminding the jury that they don't look any different from me and King.

I like the last scene in the movie, the one between me and Jerry. It makes me seem like a real person.

The man they called Sunset asked me if he could read the screenplay, and I let him. He liked it. Sunset said he liked
the name of the screenplay. He said when he gets out, he will have the word Monster tattooed on his forehead. I feel like I already have it tattooed on mine.

A preacher came to the recreation room with a guard this afternoon. He asked if anyone wanted to talk with him or share a moment of prayer. Two guys said they did, and I was just about ready to say I would when Lynch, a guy who is going on trial for killing his wife, started cursing at the preacher and saying that everybody wanted to talk to him and act like they were good when they
were just criminals. “It's too late to put up your holy front now,” he said.

In a way he was right, at least about me. I want to look like a good person. I want to feel like I'm a good person because I believe I am. But being in here with these guys makes it hard to think about yourself as being different. We look about the same, and even though I'm younger than they are, it's hard not to notice that we are all pretty young. I see what Miss O'Brien meant when she said part of her job was to make
me look human in the eyes of the jury.

When Lynch started cursing at the preacher, the guards took the preacher out, and then they came back and turned the television off and made us go back to our cells.

 

 

Notes:

I couldn't sleep most of the night after the dream. The dream took place in the courtroom. I was trying to ask questions and nobody could hear me. I was shouting and shouting but everyone went about their business as if I wasn't there. I hope I didn't shout out in my sleep.
That would look weak to everybody. It's not good to be weak in here.

Every morning we get up and put on our court clothes. The talk is lawyer talk, with all the older guys talking about appeals and “mistakes” that the judge made.

I feel terrible. My stomach is gassy and bloated. I still can't go to the bathroom in front of everyone.

When we got in the court, there was a delay because the stenographer had brought the wrong power cord. The court officer was talking about termites.

 

FADE IN: COURTROOM. STEVE and KING are cuffed to a bench. COURT OFFICERS, PETROCELLI, STENOGRAPHER, JUDGE, BRIGGS, and O'BRIEN are present.

 

OFFICER 1

 

So this guy comes to the house and tells Vivian we got termites. I get home and she's all upset. I said no way we got termites. No way.

 

JUDGE

 

You ever see any termites?

 

OFFICER 1

 

What the heck's a termite look like?

 

O'BRIEN

 

Like an ant with wings.

 

OFFICER 1

 

Then I've never seen one.

 

OFFICER 2

 

I heard they hide in the wood.

 

JUDGE

 

What I don't understand is why they have wings if they stay in the wood.

 

PETROCELLI

 

Are you going to let us do the affidavit on the crime scene?

 

JUDGE

 

Any objections?

 

BRIGGS

 

Who's going to read it in court?

 

JUDGE

 

The clerk.

 

BRIGGS

 

No objections.

 

O'BRIEN

 

What's with the detective?

 

PETROCELLI

 

He's having problems with a hemorrhoid operation.

 

BRIGGS

 

Wait—I didn't know that—maybe we can keep him on the stand for an hour or 2.

 

CUT TO: CU of PETROCELLI.

 

PETROCELLI

 

Detective Karyl, can you describe the scene when you entered the drugstore?

 

CU: KARYL.

 

KARYL

 

It was pretty gruesome.

 

CUT TO: INTERIOR: Camera pans down aisles of neighborhood DRUGSTORE.

 

CUT TO: MS of JOSÉ DELGADO. He moves in slow motion. He is pale, glancing nervously at a point out of sight of camera. He is explaining something to DETECTIVE KARYL, who stands leaning against counter. The DETECTIVE is heavy, stooped.

 

CUT TO: A shot of open cash register.

 

CUT TO: COURTROOM.

 

PETROCELLI

 

Are these the pictures you took at that time?

 

KARYL

 

The crime-scene photographer took them.

 

O'BRIEN

 

May I see them?

 

MS: PETROCELLI hands pictures to O'BRIEN, who places them before her on desk.

 

CUT TO: CU of photos. We see legs of the slain drugstore owner, NESBITT.

 

CUT TO: BLACK-AND-WHITE SHOTS from various angles of body in grotesque position. Pictures flash in an increasingly contrasty and grainy format until they are hardly recognizable.

 

PETROCELLI

 

Detective Karyl, when you discovered the body, were there any signs of life in the victim?

 

KARYL

 

No. But I called the Emergency Medical Service, which is standard procedure.

 

PETROCELLI

 

And you noted the open cash register?

 

KARYL

 

That's correct. And at that time I asked the clerk was there anything else missing. Often in these cases you might find some cough medicine missing, or some attempt to open a restricted-drugs case. There's a market for drugs of any kind.

 

PETROCELLI

 

Did you look for other clues, and did you find any?

 

KARYL

 

We looked for other clues, but we didn't actually find anything.

 

PETROCELLI

 

Eventually you began questioning suspects in this case. How did you come across the suspects?

 

KARYL

 

We questioned a number of people we felt might have some knowledge of the crime. Then we received a tip from a person who claimed he knew what happened to the cigarettes.

 

PETROCELLI

 

That would be Mr. Zinzi?

 

KARYL

 

That's correct. He told us about Mr. Bolden. Then Mr. Bolden told us about Mr. Evans and Mr. King.

 

PETROCELLI

 

And both Zinzi and Bolden had their own motives in doing this?

 

KARYL

 

We often use information from informants, especially in murder cases.

 

PETROCELLI

 

And did you talk to Mr. King?

 

KARYL

 

To Mr. King and to some of his associates.

 

FADE OUT.

 

FADE IN: INTERIOR: 28TH PRECINCT. STEVE is sitting on a long, dark bench. He is dressed in cutoffs, sneakers, and a T-shirt. There is a basketball on the floor near him. DETECTIVE KARYL is sitting across from STEVE. He is eating a cheeseburger. Sometimes he talks with his mouth full. A Black detective, ARTHUR WILLIAMS, sits on the edge of the table. He is dressed much as STEVE is and looks only a few years older.

 

KARYL

 

They're saying that you pulled the trigger. King said the score was over but you turned back and shot Nesbitt. Why did you do that? I can't figure it.

 

STEVE

 

I don't know what you're talking about, man. I didn't do any stickup.

 

KARYL

 

You figured you didn't want to leave any witnesses, I guess.

 

WILLIAMS

 

What are we playing with this guy for? We don't need him. We got the case locked.

 

KARYL

 

The DA is thinking death penalty.

 

WILLIAMS

 

Death penalty? Chances are the judge will push for life without parole. And if they come clean, he might even go for 25 to life. You save a lot of time and money that way.

 

KARYL

 

I don't know. The victim was well respected in the neighborhood. Hardworking Black guy, worked his way up. He even sponsored a Little League team. The judge could go for the death penalty if they plead not guilty.

 

WILLIAMS

 

This guy's only 16. They won't kill him.

 

KARYL

 

What are you, a pessimist? Hope for the best.

 

CUT TO: Weird shot of INTERIOR: DEATH ROW. STEVE is seen walking down the hallway between two guards. He is brought into the death chamber. The guards are pale, almost greenish. They lay STEVE on the table for the lethal injection and strap him down.

 

CU of STEVE's face. He is terrified.

 

VO (as camera focuses on STEVE's face)

 

Open your legs; we have to plug up your butt so you don't mess yourself as you die.

 

STEVE's face grimaces with pain as they put in the plug.

 

CUT TO: INTERIOR: COURTROOM. KARYL is still on stand as BRIGGS cross-examines.

 

BRIGGS

 

Did you dust the area for fingerprints?

 

KARYL

 

It's my understanding that the crime-scene technicians didn't find any fingerprints they could establish as belonging to a perpetrator.

 

BRIGGS

 

Isn't it true that what you did in this case was to skip the investigation and run to your stoolies?

 

KARYL

 

We treat each case carefully. We don't just go through the motions.

 

BRIGGS

 

The cash register was handled, but you didn't find fingerprints, is that right?

 

KARYL

 

Not clear prints.

 

BRIGGS

 

How about the counter—was that dusted for fingerprints?

 

KARYL

 

Nothing clear enough to use.

 

BRIGGS

 

And it really isn't that hard to find people who are in jail or whom you arrest to swear that somebody else is a bad guy? Isn't that right?

 

KARYL

 

We check every story. We give everybody the benefit of the doubt.

 

BRIGGS

 

But you don't check fingerprints?

 

KARYL

 

We check them when we find them.

 

BRIGGS

 

Right. Nothing further.

 

CUT TO: INTERIOR: JAIL. An OLDER PRISONER sits on the john, his pants around his ankles.

 

OLDER PRISONER

 

They got to give you some time. A guy dies and you get time. That's the deal. Why the hell should you walk? And don't give me young. Young don't count when a guy dies. Why should you walk?

 

STEVE

 

'Cause I'm a human being. I want a life too! What's wrong with that?

 

OLDER PRISONER

 

Nothing. But there's rules you got to follow. You do the crime, you do the time. You act like garbage, they treat you like garbage.

 

PRISONER 2

 

Yo, man. You acting like you a preacher or something—but guess where you at? This ain't no hotel.

 

OLDER PRISONER

 

But I ain't complaining.

 

PRISONER 2

 

But suppose he innocent?

 

OLDER PRISONER

 

You innocent?

 

STEVE

 

Yes.

 

OLDER PRISONER

 

Yeah, well, somebody got to do some time. They're going to lock somebody up.

 

PRISONER 3