12 Angry Men Essay

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The jury deliberation procedure in a homicide trial in New York City is examined in the film Twelve Angry Men. The film explores how prejudice, personal experiences, and emotion may obstruct the American judicial system and how compassion, reason, and logic can safeguard and defend due process. The ideas and or beliefs of prejudice , personal experience, and emotions not only have an impact on today's society but had an impact on a 1950’ s courtroom as well. First the theme of prejudice is very relevant as many of the jurors are more concerned about their personal lives than they are about giving this 16 year old boy a fair trial. Either that or they came into the courtrooms with preconceived opinions about the case before they actually heard the whole story. A few …show more content…

An example from the play Twelve Angry Men includes a statement that says “ This time, instead of making an argument for reason and compassion as the 8th Juror did, the 3rd Juror struggles to stick to the facts at all. As the rest of the jury looks on in silence, he breaks down. He says he can feel the knife going into his own body, emphasizing that for him, the case has always been about his estrangement from his own son. The other jurors plead with him to see past his personal issues and emphasize that the boy on trial is not his son (Twelve Angry Men: Full Book Analysis | SparkNotes”).” This relates to today's society because it ties into a juror being compromised such as in the Alex Murdaugh case when these jurors more than likely went into the courtroom and had dealt with someone in the
Murdaugh family beforehand just because they were big time lawyers. A source states that “ A
Cloud 3 juror in Alex Murdaugh’s double-homicide trial was removed on Thursday for “improper conversations” about the case with several people outside court. Judge Clifton Newman said she was bounced after a lengthy investigation by two agents, one of whom was a witness for