Preview

Twelve Angry Men (Norms, Roles, Process)

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1032 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Twelve Angry Men (Norms, Roles, Process)
Norms:
· Respect elders (e.g., the laborer is the self-appointed enforcer of good manners)
· The jurors had come to value a case based on facts, not prejudice or stereotypes. Those who upheld this value (Juror 8 and the Juror 4) were respected and became leaders that were looked to for guidance. The jurors that maintained arguments based on stereotypes alienated themselves from the others.
· The decision has to be unanimous (hung jury was something nobody liked)
· No racial prejudices were tolerated (everybody turned their backs to juror 10 when he started saying that "he knew people of these kind very well")
Processes:
The group initially started with a process of arriving at a decision by voting and there was a groupthink causing everyone (apart from juror 8) to vote guilty. Then a secret ballot was carried out and it was decided that the jury would debate for at least an hour before deciding on the fate of the boy. The first turning point in the jury's decision-making process occurs when Juror 8 dramatically produces a switchblade exactly like the murder weapon, thus disproving the prosecution's argument that the murder weapon was unique in design, Juror 8 had walked through the defendant's neighborhood earlier that week and had bought the knife from a local pawnshop, even though he knew it was against the law to purchase a switchblade. Juror 8 thus causes a few jurors to question the strength of the prosecution's case; his illegal purchase of the switchblade enables him to break the force of the majority's resistance to his viewpoint. Juror 8 convinces the other jurors, one by one, to analyze the evidence, and their grudging review of the facts slowly convinces them that there is a reasonable doubt as to the defendant's guilt. The jurors never find the truth? the identity of the true murderer is never discovered? but justice occurs within the institution of the court with the jury's verdict of not guilty. This just result is brought about because

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    12 Angry Men: Overview

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages

    2. The Twelve jurors are given the job, by the judge, of deciding whether a teenage boy is innocent or guilty of killing his father. They must separate the facts from the fancy and provide a verdict of guilty if there is no reasonable doubt to the claims, or non-guilty if there is reasonable doubt. The decision must be unanimous. The charge against the defendant is Murder in the first degree – premeditated homicide (death sentence).…

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jurors within Twelve Angry Men portray individual aspects of a 1950s American culture, all with their own take on the American Jury system. The closed minded, sheep like attitudes of the Jurors illustrates the McCathic mentality of the public which directly reflects the weaknesses within the American Jury system. Though flawed in many aspects one juror displays the key strength in the American justice system when dealing with serious crimes, a unanimous vote must be accomplished through the consideration of reasonable doubt. The question remains throughout if Juror 8 had not been present would the verdict of been the same? Would reasonable doubt of been taken into consideration? And was the American justice system strong enough to uphold their value of innocent until proven guilty.…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “12 Angry Men” focuses on a jury’s deliberations in a capital murder case. A 12-man jury is sent to begin deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused in the stabbing death of his father, where a guilty verdict means automatic death sentence. The case appears to be open-and-shut: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No.8 (Mr. Davis) casts a not guilty vote.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Imagine having to decide a young boy’s fate who is accused of murder in the first degree. This is the case in “Twelve Angry Men”, the prize-winning drama written by Reginald Rose. Some jurors address relevant topics, while others permit their personal “judgments” from thoroughly looking at the case. After hours of deliberation, the jurors reached the decision that the boy is not guilty, due to the fact of reasonable doubt. While few jurors are motivated by their respect and determination for the justice system, Juror 10 is motivated by his personal prejudice.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men Essay

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The movie "12 Angry Men" focuses on a jury's decision on a capital murder case. A 12-man jury is sent to begin decisions on the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused of stabbing his father to death, where a guilty verdict means an automatic death sentence. The case appears to be open-and-shut: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No. 8 (Mr. Davis) casts a not guilty vote. At first Mr. Davis' bases his vote more so for the sake of discussion after all, the jurors must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. As the movie unfolds, the story quickly becomes a study of the jurors' complex personalities and how they deal with argumentation within groups and critical thinking. This allows Mr. Davis to try and convince the other jury members that the defendant might not be guilty by using cooperative argumentation, claim, evidence, warrant, facts, etc.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Juror 3‘s relationship with his estranged son conflicts with the case and how he is intolerant to young kids (ageism) he also believes that a common way of handling conflict in his family has always been with physical violence. Dependence on violence as a problem-solving strategy.…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    These jurors want to end the trial fast and give the judge the most obvious verdict. Which is "Guilty." However, the #8 juror opposes to the so called obvious verdict, so the others get upset and angry. This also triggers their wanting to have a reasonable answer to their discomfort. They continously show disrespect to the #8 juror redirecting the attention to some jokes and games showing their disatisfaction till the first big point is made. And it goes on shifting one by one to the otherside. However, the #8 juror started it because he only wanted to hear more about the boy's life and his circumstances. But as the conversation went on the small points made by others helped him think of ways to prove the kid "not guilty." Thats what I think.…

    • 5854 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages

    From the outset of the play, the 8th Juror exemplifies seeing things from more than one perspective by voting “not guilty” against the crowd. Many of the jury members in the case believe that the trial is “obvious” and does not need much discussion. However the 8th Juror believes in civic responsibility and the defendant’s right to a fair trial. He doesn’t necessarily believe that the defendant is “innocent”, however he understands the seriousness of the case and finds it difficult “to send a boy off to die without talking about it first.” Instead, the 8th Juror puts himself in position of the accused and imagines that he is the one on trial. This is why he decides to vote against the crowd and vote “not guilty”. The 8th Juror…

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the play from the starting juror 8 is the only one who votes ‘not guilty’ as he says, ‘It’s not easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first.’ This clearly tells us that he had gone through all the evidences and found them to be lacking whereas all the other eleven jurors had assumed that this was an ‘open and shut case’ without thinking of any other chances. This is obvious when he says towards the end of the play, ‘….we have a reasonable doubt, and this is a safeguard which has enormous value in our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it’s sure.’ These words of juror 8 have a tremendous influence on the other jurors to vote unanimously ‘not guilty’ in favour of the boy.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eyewitness In 12 Angry Men

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The film 12 Angry Men is about a murder trial conducted in a courtroom. The judge gave the jury its final instruction telling them that a guilty verdict will result in a death sentence for the defendant, an 18-year-old boy who was accused of murdering his father using a knife! One juror had a personal connection with the case. He has not seen his son for more than two years. He claims that the young boy is guilty and that all young kids are criminals. The juror has bias towards the trial because he see his son in the young boy. Out of the twelve jurors, eleven jurors voted for conviction. Another juror states that he has doubts about the case and hopes to give the boy a favorable decision. The young boy had a hard life living in the slum. A third juror claims that each of the…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twelve Angry Men Essay

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Moreover, the 8th Juror has a clear understanding of the jury system and appears as a defender of the system which falters by the other jurors. The jury system is only successful when all individuals exclude their personal prejudice and bias in the deliberations. But most of jurors have coloured views of the case,…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Juror number 8 came with a reasonable argument to the jurors that changes the 9th juror’s perspective. The argument convinces the 9th juror to be an advocate for the boy/support the boy. Even though the 9th juror is convinced and sees the case from a different view than before, the other jurors are still not convinced. The 8th juror makes a tough but smart decision when voting to take time and sit and talk a bit more throught the case to find a conclusion. At first he says that the defendant is not guilty but he then reevaluates his decision and says “i don’t know.”…

    • 105 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reginald Rose's play, Twelve Angry Men, takes place in the 'jury-room of the New York Court of Law' in 1957, and explores how the persistence and determination of juror 8 eventually influences the other jurors into changing their minds about the verdict. Juror 8, the protagonist of the play, continually questions the veracity of the evidence in order to persuade other jurors to think about reasonable doubt. He goes out of his way to attempt to make other jurors deliberate about the murder. Even though the 8th juror broke the law by submitting the ‘one of a kind’ switchblade knife in the jury room the evidence was put into good hands and became a positive element towards the end of the play. The 8th Jurors intellectuality of twisting facts around is an important component that tests the…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men Essay

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages

    They started to listen to one another, realizing it was necessary to hear each other’s incite, and they finally began to support each other’s views. This is a perfect illustration of groupthink, which is where group members try to cut down on any sort of conflict by not evaluating, scrutinizing, or arguing with other people’s ideas. However, they had a conflict with one of the jurors. There was no intention throughout the entire movie that this was going to switch his vote because he had personal ties from a family feud he was portraying. He had told us that in the beginning of the movie that he got into a fist fight with his 16 year old son and hasn’t seen him in two years. Once everyone was on the same page, convincing this man to vote not guilty became the name of the…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men Response

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The setting of 12 Angry Men is a jury deliberation room where the jurors are and required to decide the guilt or innocence of an 18 year old that is accused of committing first-degree murder by stabbing his father with a switchblade knife. Witnesses were presented to give evidence of hearing a quarrel; hearing a threat to kill, and have seeing the boy run away. Another witness swore to having seen the boy stabbing his father from a window across from where the murder occurred. Eleven jurors were convinced the boy was guilty and deserved the death penalty. One raised questions he felt had not been asked or had not been pursued by the defense.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics