Veils of Justice

In 2009, Mazen, a young Talban, son of a Saudi who fought Russians in Afghanistan, waits in Rikers among gangs, accused of raping, beating and robbing at knifepoint an established older New Yorker. This Muslim man's future depends on two American women - Miriam, his Jewish defense lawyer and Lynn, his accuser’s wife. When Miriam sees possible innocence and finds out the accuser's wife met him shortly after the alleged violence, she asks Lynn to look at evidence:

  • If Lynn sees guilt, a jury will also see it and the lawyer will recommend accepting a plea deal for 10 years instead of a possible 20 years per felony;
  • If she sees no guilt, the lawyer will subpoena the wife as a witness and risk a trial by a jury of New Yorkers with the opportunity to convict the first Saudi of anything in New York since the September 11 attacks, less than ten years earlier.

Lynn sees no guilt, but she is sure her husband would not make up such horrific charges. She does not want to put her own job at risk by being involved in a salacious trial, shame her sons, or put her family at risk of revenge by the defendant’s Arab family. She asks Chris, her gay brother, to help find the truth. She also asks her husband to drop the charges. With some drunken giggles about the absurdities of all forms sex along the way, the story journeys through fear, betrayals and justice in post-9/11 America – ending with the jury’s verdict and the first meeting between the defendant and the accuser’s wife.

Cast: 
Reading at The Director's Company, Sept 2013:: Maryann Plunkett as the wife LYNN; Antonio Minino as the defendant; William Kozy as Lynn's brother CHRIS; Patricia Lynn as MIRIAM the defense lawyer; others.
Authors: 
Tita Anntares