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The Judicial System In Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men

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The judicial system is not always fair and impartial because since its inception it has been used as a means for discrimination and systemic oppression against BIPOC and other marginalized groups. Throughout American history there have been so many tragic examples of injustices carried out by our incredibly flawed judicial system. In fact, the bias within the American judicial system is such a wide-spread issue that it's been depicted in literature countless times to bring forth awareness about the issue. For example, in Reginald Rose´s 1954 play 12 Angry Men, there are several different instances in the book where the jurors discriminate against the defendant, a boy charged with murdering his father because he was Puerto Rican. The boy was …show more content…

No matter how much the judicial system tries to weed out corruption and bias that will never change unless we dismantle the entirety of it. In addition the government will probably never tear down and rebuild because it would require a reexamination of the entire system. In which they would come to the conclusion that racism, anti-blackness, and the discrimination of all marginalized groups is embedded in every single part of American society and government. Since all of this hate and bigotry is seemingly everywhere in America it obviously affects jurors, so there is no way to completely guarantee that a jury is unbiased. Readers can see examples of this all throughout 12 Angry men. All of the jurors in the book come in with these preconceived notions of what they think the defendant is like because of his ethnic identity and social class. This internal bias heavily affects the way they examine the evidence, and if it wasn't for Juror 8 they all would´ve been ready to give him death without even fully analyzing the case. Although they came to a not guilty verdict it was a very rigorous process in which they had to see past their own bigotry and look at the case from a logical

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No matter the motives of any juror, each can be traced back to Juror Eight, and the fact that he was brave enough to stand against the crowd. In the end, every juror eventually reached the verdict of not guilty, but there was still a very long process to get there, and many people that produced the answers for the others. Juror Eight is the only reason anyone in this play made a single sound, and he may have eventually been brought down if Juror Nine hadn’t changed his vote to support him. They worked as a team, with Juror Five soon joining in, Juror Eight had an incredible impact on everyone in that room, and he is the reason a boy who was most likely innocent was set

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727 Words | 3 Pages

The jury’s final decision of not guilty in the case of murder in the first degree in Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose was just and a good reflection of our justice system. In act 2 page 28 Juror 8 questions if the old man that has had 2 strokes and said that heard the murder take place and the kid running down the stairs just a few seconds after he heard the body drop, could get to the door on time to see the kid running down the stairs. He argues against the validity of the old man’s testimony when he says, “His bed was at the window. It's (looking closer) twelve feet from his bed to the bedroom door. The length of the hall is forty-three feet, six inches.

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The 8th juror stood up for the boy and believed he should at least deserve a chance. Through many hours of arguments and disputes, all jurors came to a decision. The defendant is not guilty. In the beginning of the book, eleven out of the twelve jurors voted guilty.

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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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1964 Words | 8 Pages

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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1247 Words | 5 Pages

He seems in a way relatable to William Golding’s character, Simon, in The Lord of The Flies. Simon is seen as a sort of christ like figure, and while Juror 8 isn't anywhere near that level, he does seem to portray a sort of thoughtfulness and compassion that Simon does as well. All of the jurors are affected by peer pressure in different ways, and how they are effected is important to the

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975 Words | 4 Pages

Biased juries ruin lives. The reasons behind biased juries vary, but majority of the time it is because of the jury’s own personal morals. Juries’ morals range from racism to simply having a bad experience with the defendant. With biased and unfair juries an appeal can be extremely important to the defendant. In the 1950’s segregation and discrimination were at the highest, this did not help Black men and women.

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465 Words | 2 Pages

A fair and unbiased court system is necessary for the legal system. The role of the court is to correct any injustice, not to compound it. When prejudice and corruption leak into the courts, what recourse do we have for eradicating them from society? Our judges must be stalwarts of integrity because the power to move our country forward or hold our country back often lies in their hands. Judge Persky had the power to bring justice to a victim, to help her and her family move forward.

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The issue of bias is a long standing issue in the American justice system that has been around for ages. And the Rodney King trial is no exception for societal bias. It is clear that the jury and police officers involved has some sort of bias in place that prevented just verdict for King. And according to the National Center for State Courts, the biggest societal bias didn’t fall on the jury or the defense. It fell on the judge: “ judges are susceptible to these implicit associations, too.

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1057 Words | 5 Pages

This proves to be a serious problem because a juror could have a good valid point to bring up in court. An example of this is just like in the story. In the story, juror eight brings up many valid points with the other jurors that could have completely turned the tide and helped the accused victim, but was not allowed to bring up these points due to his inability to talk in the court session. Another problem that goes side by side with the first point is that because of their inability to speak in the court session jurors then have to

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803 Words | 4 Pages

This process continues throughout the course of the movie, and each juror’s biases is slowly revealed. Earlier through the movie, it is already justifiable to label juror 10 as a bigoted racist as he reveals strong racist tendencies against the defendant, stating his only reason for voting guilty is the boy’s ethnicity and background. . Another interesting aspect of this 1957 film is the “reverse prejudice” portrayed by juror

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801 Words | 4 Pages

If it wasn 't for Juror #8, I don 't know what terrible consequences would have been. Owing to his insistence, the case was discussed and everyone began to pay attention to the details of the case, testimony, evidence, and witness actions. In the end, twelve people overcame prejudice, ceased the conflict, and made the right decision. The play tells us that justice can be affected by prejudice very easily.

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2057 Words | 9 Pages

Jury Systems and Racial Injustice Juries are the way we make sure trials are fair, but when your jury is biased the result of the trial are often inequitable. Today we do our best to make sure trials have impartial jurors, but this was not always the case. In the 1930’s, and a lot of other decades too, the right for African Americans to have an unbiased jury was not fulfilled. This caused many African Americans to be sentenced to death when they otherwise would not have been.

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575 Words | 3 Pages

The courts have failed to gain recognition and rejection of the practice of excluding blacks from the jury: First by the composition of the jury panels and second in the use of peremptory challenges to remove black people who reach the panels from which the jury pool is selected. The conclusion that race and racism, continue to be major influences in a jury selection process and in the outcome of juries seems beyond doubt, but Kennedy retains his commitment to anti-discrimination as the appropriate standard in jury selection as in all other aspects of the law enforcement process. Moreover, rejecting procedures that would ensure racial diversity in the jury pool is a complication because they are not focusing on what is more important which

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591 Words | 3 Pages

The justice system that relies on twelve individuals reaching a life-or-death decision has many complications and dangers. The play Twelve Angry Men, by Reiginald Rose, illustrates the dangers of a justice system that relies on twelve people reaching a life-or-death decision because people are biased, they think of a jury system as an inconvenience, and many people aren’t as intelligent as others. The first reason why Reiginald illustrates dangers is because people can be biased or they can stereotype the defendant. The Jurors in Twelve Angry Men relate to this because a few of them were biased and several of them stereotyped the defendant for being from the slums. The defendant in this play was a 19 year old kid from the slums.

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