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Sandra Petrocelli
Asa 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. Briggs won’t even let King speak for himself, because he knows he would incriminate himself immediately. However, Briggs still makes his attempt to defend King and is often antagonistic to Petrocelli’s leading questions, pointing out that they are fundamentally unjust. In his closing statement, Briggs argues that King is not guilty of the murder, even though he obviously is, thus demonstrating that court trials are not so much a pursuit of the truth as a contest between lawyers over who can argue and manipulate evidence the best.
Asa Briggs Quotes in Monster
The Monster quotes below are all either spoken by Asa Briggs or refer to Asa Briggs. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Tuesday, July 14th
Quotes
[O’Brien] said that Bobo’s testimony hurt us a lot and that she had to find a way to separate me from King, but King’s lawyer wanted to make sure the jury connected us because I looked like a pretty decent guy.
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There are a lot of things you can do with film, but you don’t have unlimited access to your audience. In other words, keep it simple. You tell the story; you don’t look for the camera technician to tell the story for you. When you see a filmmaker getting too fancy, you can bet he’s worried either about his story or about his ability to tell it.
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If you don’t testify, you’ll just make the tie between you and King stronger in the mind of the jury. I think you have to testify. And the way you spend the rest of your youth might well depend on how much the jury believes you.
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Asa Briggs Quotes in Monster
The Monster quotes below are all either spoken by Asa Briggs or refer to Asa Briggs. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Tuesday, July 14th
Quotes
[O’Brien] said that Bobo’s testimony hurt us a lot and that she had to find a way to separate me from King, but King’s lawyer wanted to make sure the jury connected us because I looked like a pretty decent guy.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
There are a lot of things you can do with film, but you don’t have unlimited access to your audience. In other words, keep it simple. You tell the story; you don’t look for the camera technician to tell the story for you. When you see a filmmaker getting too fancy, you can bet he’s worried either about his story or about his ability to tell it.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
If you don’t testify, you’ll just make the tie between you and King stronger in the mind of the jury. I think you have to testify. And the way you spend the rest of your youth might well depend on how much the jury believes you.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
