How Does Juror Number 8 Trying To Raise Reasonable Doubt In 12 Angry Men

Reasonable doubt can be defined as a doubt based on reason and common sense and not purely on speculation. In the play “12 Angry Men”, a boy is accused of stabbing his father to death with a “rare” knife. Juror #8 is the protagonist in this play and he is trying to raise reasonable doubt in the jury room. He sees all sides of every question and is very persuasive. He takes the vote from 11-1, guilty, to 12-0, not guilty. Juror #8 believes there is room for reasonable doubt and refuses to back down until the jury agrees.

Juror #8 uses persuasion when trying to raise reasonable doubt by acting out what the old man claimed happened and proving that the testimony given by the old man may not have been completely true. He acts out the testimony

The store owner claims that the knife was one-of-a-kind and he had never seen anything like it before. Juror #8 asks the guard to bring in the knife that was presented in court. When the guard brings in the knife, Juror #8 sets it on the table and then proceeds to pull an identical knife out of his pocket that he had bought at a pawn shop. Juror #8’s providing of this knife proves that the knife was not as rare and unique as the store owner made it sound.

Lastly, the testimony given by the woman across the street was brought up and proven to not be 100% accurate. Juror #4 reminds everyone of what the woman said in her testimony, “She said that she went to bed at about eleven 0' clock that night. Her bed was next to the open window and she could look out of the window while lying down and see directly into the window across the street. She tossed and turned for over an hour, unable to fall asleep. Finally, she turned toward the window at about twelve-ten and, as she looked out, she saw the boy stab his father.” Juror #8 uses the visual testimony of the old woman to provide reasonable doubt. He brings up the fact that she had markings on her nose from glasses. Juror #8 asks Juror #2 if he wears his glasses to bed and he replies “Of course not!”. The woman would not have worn her glasses to bed and most likely would not have put her glasses on to turn over in her bed. This proves that