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Why Is Juror 8 Angry

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It was a hot, sweltering summer day that involved a gruesome murder case. Twelve men were placed as jurors regarding a young man being accused of stabbing his father to death. During preliminary tally, eleven tired men voted guilty, while one lone man voted not guilty. That person was Juror #8. A simple man nearing middle age with full dark hair, dark mystic eyes, and a well leveled tone, who carried himself firmly. Of course, the eleven men grew frustrated with this and tried to explain to Juror #8 their reasons the young man was guilty. Juror #8 defended his opinion saying he did not say the young man wasn’t guilty, but that he was not sure. He could not imagine going through with a guilty verdict for a young, scared man who was hanging on …show more content…

However, he was very firm with his point of view and his uncertainty of the guilty and did not change his not guilty verdict to make the others happy. Some of the men in the jury were quite demeaning and only saw their own point of view, yet Juror #8 continued to keep his patience while others around him began to lose their temper. Of course, with the only fan in the room not working and blood level rising between the men, it grew to be extremely difficult to not grow angry easily. For instance, even after difficulty until the very end with the resentful, angry Juror #3, Juror #8, after finalizing the strenuous tally, brought the defeated man his jacket and gently helped him put it on. All in all, Juror #8 played a strong, significant role in the trial outcome by proving to all eleven men that the young man may not have been guilty. After extreme perspiration from the grueling heat, the eleven jurors followed Juror #8’s lead for a verdict of not guilty. Even if some of the men did not truly believe the young man was not guilty due to the their own self righteousness, in the end the verdict was finally decided. Sadly, we cannot see the young man’s reaction, but we all probably can guess he’d be doing backflips with

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“NO. 7: So what'd you vote not guilty for? NO. 8: There were eleven votes for guilty. It's not so easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first.” (Lumet 5) Juror #8 is the only one that even tried to find more about the crime and the person, he is the only one that saw him as a kid and made everyone believe him then too. ”

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When asked why he voted not guilty, juror eight stated “Look, this boy has been kicked around all his life. You know---living in a slum, his mother dead since he was nine. He spent a year in and a half in an orphanage while his father served a jail term for forgery. That’s not a very good head start. He’s had a pretty terrible sixteen years.

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As the play went on, Juror Eight started proving how the boy was innocent. In the end Juror Eight changed all the other juror’s minds, except for Juror Three’s. Juror Three ended up changing his vote, not because they changed his mind but because he gave into peer pressure. He still had his prejudice influenced decision, he only gave in because he didn't want it to be a hung jury. Another example, from the same play, is Juror Eight.

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Juror #2 finds it “interesting that he’d find a knife exactly like the one the boy bought”(24). Afterwards, the 8th Juror suggests that the old man, one of the witnesses, lied because of the point Juror #3 tried to make. Juror #3 says, that the old man “[ran ] to his door and [saw ] the kid tearing down the stairs fifteen seconds after the killing”(42). Juror #8 then suggests that the old man could not have done that because of his stroke.

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Juror Eight was the only man from the beginning of the play who stuck by his belief that the kid was innocent. He stood alone in front of the other jurors and defended himself from the other jurors, such as Juror Three and Juror Ten. Jurors Three and Ten were adamant that the kid was guilty and refused to listen to Juror Eight’s “nonsense”. Juror Eight’s evidence and speeches persuaded all the other jurors to change their vote from not guilty, except for Juror Three. The only reason Juror Three had it out for the kid was because he himself had some issues with kids respecting their parents, and specifically their fathers.

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What is worth our attention in this movie is how in the beginning they are trying to convince each other to vote guilty. 11 juror voted guilty and only one voted not guilty. Their judgments were based upon either their past personal experience which created their thoughts and behavior or upon facts. Juror 8 represents the conscience. He stood up for his inner feelings that the accused young boy is innocent.

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While all of the other men have changed their vote to a not guilty verdict, the third jurors remains with his original belief. Even in the very end of the play, he acts hostile against the others trying to change his mind, in saying “Do you think I’m an idiot or something?” (Rose 72). One juror that seems almost impervious to argumentative fallacies and peer pressure is Juror 8. Juror almost displays the ideal juror, and the rest tend to mimic the flaws of the system.

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In a New York City, an 18-year-old male from a slum is on a trial claiming that he is responsible for his father death by stabbing him After both sides has finished their closing argument in the trial, the judge asks the jury to decide whether the boy is guilty or not The judge informs the jury decided the boy is guilty, he will face a death sentence as a result of this trial The jurors went into the private room to discuss about this case. At the first vote, all jurors vote guilty apart from Juror 8 (Henry Fonda), he was the only one who voted “Note Guilty” Juror 8 told other jurors that they should discuss about this case before they put a boy into a death sentence

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