The Primal fear

Summary of the movie

When a young man, Aaron, is charged with the horrific murder of Archbishop
Rushman, hot-shot Chicago lawyer Martin Vail takes on his defense at no charge.
Aaron was a homeless street kid before he was taken in by the Archbishop. He's
shy and speaks with a stammer. Vail is convinced that Aaron is innocent but after
discovering a video that shows Aaron may have had good reason to want the
Archbishop dead, he begins to question that conclusion. When Aaron lashes out at
the psychologist examining him another personality, Roy, is revealed. With the
trial already underway, Vail cannot change Aaron plea and so has to find a way to
introduce his client's condition. Aaron has something of a surprise for him as well.
Martin Vail left the Chicago DA's office to become a successful criminal lawyer,
that success predicated on working on high profile cases. As such, he fights to get
the case of naive nineteen-year-old rural Kentuckian Aaron Stampler, an altar boy
accused of the vicious bludgeoning death of Archbishop Rushman of Chicago. The
story that Aaron tells Marty is that he, abused by his father, was in the room when
the murder was committed by a third party, a shadowy figure he did not see, before
he blacked out, which commonly happens to him. Not remembering anything
during the blackout period, he awoke covered in the archbishop's blood, his fright
the reason he ran from the police. He also states that he had no reason to kill the
archbishop, who he loved as the father he wished he had. Marty doesn't care if he
is guilty or innocent, but needs to know the truth to defend him adequately. Unlike
the rest of the world, Marty does believe his story, he who hopes he can use
Aaron's general appearance of being an innocent to his advantage. The powerful
state attorney, John Shaughnessy, who Marty has had many a moral run-in, wants a
first-degree murder conviction and the death penalty in this case. He appoints to
the case Janet Venable, who still has bad feelings toward Marty, an ex-lover, their
six-month relationship which ended badly. Although the case looks to be a slam
dunk for Janet, her career may be made or broken by its outcome. In building his
case, Marty comes across some major pieces of information, some pertaining to the
Archbishop himself, and one uncovered by Dr. Molly Arrington about Aaron, she a
psychiatrist hired by Marty to assess Aaron's mental state. These pieces of
information as a collective pose a problem for Marty in how to mount a credible
and legitimate defense for his client. It is more of a moral dilemma for Marty if
only because he believes the life of a young man, who he believes in, is at stake.
As the brutal murder of Chicago's beloved archbishop by the hand of the shy
nineteen-year-old altar boy, Aaron Stampler, makes the headlines, the high-profile
defense attorney, Martin Vail, takes the opportunity to be in the spotlight. Pro
bono, Vail is eager to represent the penniless defendant and the case's seemingly
obvious murderer; however, Aaron appears to know more than he lets on. Under
those circumstances, is Stampler truly guilty of murder, or was he framed? Above
all, is the arrogant and cynical lawyer prepared to dig deep into the popular priest's
past to unearth the truth