Twelve Angry Men: Reasonable Doubt In The Justice System
Ian Marthaler Mrs. Coplin Composition 13 March 2023 Reasonable Doubt in The Justice System In the play Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, twelve jury members must decide whether the son is guilty of murdering his father. They must unanimously agree on whether the son is guilty or not guilty based on the facts. At the start of the juror meeting, the jurors voted, and the only person to vote not guilty was juror eight. He said he wanted to talk about the case before deciding whether the son was guilty. Juror eight shows a great reason for proving how the facts and witnesses in court create doubt in him. He slowly persuades all the jurors until it comes down to juror three who says the kid is guilty only because his own son and him got in a fight. The jurors deliberated about the facts using common sense and reasonable doubt to decide that he was not guilty. Reginald Rose shows that reasonable doubt is an important part of the justice system in the play because it refutes evidence shown and also determines the outcome of a defendant's life. …show more content…
The jurors thought the knife was one of its kind, therefore, making the kid guilty of killing his father. Juror eight proves this wrong by showing them the same knife as the murder weapon. (Rose 23) This could mean that somebody else could have the same knife and have killed him. Not only was the weapon the same but the way the stab wound was had made the jurors doubt the facts. They knew the stab wound was in a downward motion which is only made by inexperienced users, the doubt was created because they knew the kid was raised in the slums so he knew how to handle a switchblade. (Rose 61) Experienced switchblade users hold the blade underhand and make an upward motion. This created reasonable doubt in many of the jurors and was one of the most important pieces of evidence that helped the jurors decide the life saving outcome for the
Twelve Angry Men, By Reginald Rose
333 Words | 2 PagesIn the drama, “Twelve Angry Men,” by Reginald Rose. A 19 year old boy is a suspect in the murdering of his father. A jury of twelve men is left to decide his fate, guilty or not guilty. Juror 10 is biased and a hypocrite, which helped them reach a unanimous vote of not guilty.
Signposts In Twelve Angry Men, By Reginald Rose
899 Words | 4 PagesAn interesting part to think about from this play is the fact that by the end of the story, all twelve men had agreed, not guilty for the defendants trial. The question is why would eleven men with the determined thought that the defendant was guilty, change their mind within a few hours and pieces of justified evidence? The final decision stated that the defendant was…“Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. ”(Rose 1957)
Examples Of Reasonable Doubt In 12 Angry Men
744 Words | 3 PagesThe Protagonist Reasonable doubt, a doubt about the defendant's guilt that arises due to the lack of evidence. In 12 Angry Men the members of the jury are faced with the task of deciding if the troubled boy is guilty. Within the jury, Juror 8 is the protagonist and questions the evidence given within the case. The jury spends several hours in the jury room since the group is required to come to an anonymous decision. due to uncertainty of the evidence.
Argumentative Essay On '12 Angry Men'
617 Words | 3 PagesIn the play 12 angry men, the prosecutor states that the boy killed his father. The 12 jurors argue if the boy is guilty or not. And the witnesses, the old man, and the women make claims that the boy is guilty of killing his father. The 12 jurors further tried to find flaws in the evidence given to them. However other people can argue that he is guilty because there's still a lot of evidence of him being guilty.
12 Angry Men Essay
1031 Words | 5 PagesSince 1973 at least 190 people have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. Being a juror of a murder case is very serious and scary, you as a person have a decision to whether to let someone live or die. In Sidney Lumet’s dramatic film 12 angry men, twelve men are debating the fate of a young boy who’s being accused of killing his father. Based on the evidence shown during the case, the jury must find the boy not guilty because eyewitness testimony is not reliable, the boy’s alibi is credible and there is not sufficient physical evidence to prove that the young man killed his father.
Not Guilty In Twelve Angry Men By Reginald Rose
727 Words | 3 PagesFurthermore, when juror 4 points out that the kid bought the knife, took it home and killed his father then wiped off the fingerprints as he notes in act 1, “The boy took the knife home and a few hours later stabbed his father with it and even remembered to wipe off the fingerprints.” , Also in act 3 Juror 5 notes that because this was premeditated murder and the kid is a skilled knife fighter he would have stabbed downward with a switch knife as he notes in page 40 of act 3 “Anyone who's ever used a switch knife would never have stabbed downward. You don't handle a switch knife that way. You use it underhanded.” These two pieces of evidence raise reasonable doubt because if it was premeditated murder and the kid was a skilled knife fighter, he would have never stabbed his father the wrong way, he would have used the switchblade and stabbed the way a “skilled knife fighter” would stab.
Examples Of Innocence In 12 Angry Men
333 Words | 2 Pages“A person is innocent until proved guilty in a court of law” In the play Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, an 18-year-old is on trial for the murder of his father. After many pieces of evidence, the three that are in doubt are the old man hearing “I’m going to kill you!” as well as the weapon of choice and how it was replicated, and finally the woman’s testimony. In my opinion, the boy could have been proven guilty, based on these the boy is not guilty.
Ethos Pathos In 12 Angry Men
997 Words | 4 PagesSome of the arguments and issues with the case that he seems to care most about are the knife Juror #8 bought that is similar to the murder weapon and how fast it took the old man to get to the door. In Act 1, Juror #4 begins to explain that the knife used is very unusual. That even the store-keeper that sold the knife had never seen a weapon like that before. Juror #8 then argues that someone could have possibly gotten a knife similar to the one the boy had and then “reaches into his pocket and swiftly withdraws a knife... they are exactly alike”(23).
12 Angry Men Essay
708 Words | 3 PagesJuror eight believes that the kid is innocent but the rest do not agree. He has to try to convince the others while they keep putting him down and telling him that it's obvious that the kid is guilty. Juror ten says, “Look, we’re all grown-ups here. We heard the facts, didn’t we?
Evidence In 12 Angry Men
488 Words | 2 PagesTwelve Angry Men “A person is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.” In the play, Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, a nineteen years old is on trial for the murder of his father. After many pieces of evidence were presented, the three that are weak include the one of a kind knife, the old men who heard the words “I’m going to kill you!” and the woman who is in question because of her glasses. Based on these, the boy is not guilty.
Reasonable Doubt In Twelve Angry Men
1011 Words | 5 PagesReasonable doubt proves that critical thinking is important when someone’s life is in someone else’s hands. “Twelve Angry Men” by Reginald Rose, is a play about twelve jury members who must deliberate and decide the fate of a man who is accused of murdering his father. These twelve men must unanimously agree on whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty without reasonable doubt. Just like the jurors, the readers of this play have not witnessed the crime that took place before the trial started. Everyone, but the writer, is in the dark about who committed the crime.
12 Angry Men Essay
700 Words | 3 PagesJuror 8 is the only one to initially vote "not guilty" in the case of a young man who is charged with the murder of his father.. The film follows his attempts to persuade the other jurors to reexamine the evidence and consider the
12 Angry Men Murder Scene Analysis
851 Words | 4 PagesThis play sets up a murder mystery that keeps the audience on their feet and looking for answers. The jury consisted of twelve stubborn men. Eleven men found the boy guilt, while juror eight was the only man that wanted to review the case over again to make sure the jury was making the correct decision. All eleven jurymen were set on the boy being guilty and were trying to convince juror eight that he was guilty.
12 Angry Men Case Study
858 Words | 4 PagesThe boy should deserve a careful discussion from jurors before face the result of the trial and he emphases that there were only two people who saw the whole process of the murder stabbing the boy’s dad Juror 8 questioned the weapon which claim to kill father, which is a normal switchblade that even juror 8 owns one himself Juror 8 told other jurors to revote, and if this time 11 jurors still think that the boy is guilty, then he will go with them and say that the boy is guilty too One person voted “Not Guilty” at the second
Ethics In Twelve Angry Men
658 Words | 3 Pagesthroughout the play Twelve Angry Men, strong personalities and stubbornness make it difficult to decide whether it is reasonable to agree that the boy on trial should be charged with murder. Juror #8 stayed true to his belief that ethics must be used during the trial while the other men are judgmental of the ideas that he presents. Many of the other men chose to approach the discussion holding true to their morals and previous judgements to use as validation that the boy was guilty. Arguments arose due to different ideas of what occurred on the night the father was murdered. It was difficult for the jurors to deliberate as they all had different morals and ethics.
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