Trial

David Blake, a criminal law professor at State University in San Juno, has to gain some practical trial experience as part of his contract renewal. The only local lawyer willing to give David that experience is Barney Castle, who chases after seventeen year old Angel Chavez as a client, Angel a poor Mexican immigrant charged with the murder of similarly aged Marie Wiltse, a classmate he encountered on a crowded, private San Juno beach the evening of her death. Angel claims that he and Marie did meet each other by chance, had made out with each other, but when they parted company she was fine, he ultimately shouting out for help after discovering her dead body on the beach. With the case, Barney assigns David lead litigator, with his legal assistant Abbe Nyle by his side in the courtroom, while Barney himself does whatever field work is required for the case, including looking for "investors" to fund the case. Beyond his lack of courtroom experience, David will find that there are many other things he has to learn that he doesn't teach in his class to provide the effective legal service to Angel, who he truly believes to be innocent of the charge, at least in a moral sense. He has to overcome the extraneous circumstances of the case, specifically the rampant racial overtones which are only fueled by a vocal and powerful anti-ethnic voice in town. He also learns that he has to play the "game" that Barney has orchestrated, Barney who has basically told both him and Angel's mother, Consuela Chavez, to do whatever he says without question for Angel's own good. That game that Barney has devised has some strong ulterior motives which may not only threaten the case but threaten what is the burgeoning romance between David and Abbe.