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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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