O'Brien discredits Zinzi's character by saying he is just a criminal and one of many the prosecution have called upon who is trying to save his own hide. Some of what he says maybe be true, but the jury cannot completely trust someone whose only goal is to strike a...
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deal with the district attorney to get out of prison.
When Zinzi is on the witness stand, she discredits him indirectly and in a way that is designed to plant questions in the jurors' heads. For example, she calls Zinzi's statement to the police a story and asks "are you happy with the deal?" This implies that he would potentially say anything and get anybody else in trouble if it would benefit him.
Zinzi is on the witness stand because his friend Bolden had told him that he had bought cigarettes from a guy that had murdered someone while committing a robbery. Bolden was thinking about taking the matter to the police and using it to strike a deal, but Zinzi got there first. He says that at the time he was desperate to get out of Riker's Island because a group of men wanted to gang-rape him.
Zinzi's statement results in the police arresting Bobo Evans—the man who sold the cigarettes to Bolden.