Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose

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Recommended: Important role of the jury in the criminal justice system

In our society today citizens play a vital role in the legal system by serving as jury. A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment (Wikipedia). 12 citizens are selected to serve as jury on a particular trial. In the movie, “12 Angry Men”, 12 ordinary citizens were called to serve as jury in a case to decide the verdict of a murder trial. I’m choosing these three jurors on my legal team based on their character and contribution during the jury trial as portrayed in the movie. They are juror number one, Martin Balsam, juror eight, Henry Fonda (Davis) and juror 11, George Voskovec. Juror number one, Martin played a leadership role by leading their session. He was very firm but calm. He ensured all jury members had the opportunity to exercise their rights on the day-to-day affairs of their deliberations. In the movie, he never lord his acclaimed role over his peers. He tried to seek their approval through a democratic process by voting either privately or publicly in the jury room. This is a quality needed for a jury leadership. He was a professional high school coach, as such, he was able to use his role as a leader to champion his agenda while maintaining the sanity in the jury room. Even though, he voted guilty in the beginning proceeding he later changed his decision to not guilty after numerous facts and evidence were presented by his peers. For this reason, I choose him as one of the member on my legal team The next person I would like for him to be on my legal team is juror number eight, Henry Fonda. He is a man of integrity, patient and calm, but took his role in the jury process serious... ... middle of paper ... ...s vote to not guilty. When juror number seven, Jack Walden decided to change his vote from guilty to not guilty because that was the popular vote, and as such he wanted the proceedings to end so that he could go watch sports, George questioned his integrity. Juror number seven (George) reminded him of the privilege he has in serving as a jury over such an important case. George asked Jack, “Are you voting not guilty because everybody is voting not guilty or you are voting not guilty because you feel it is the right thing to do.” I definitely want him on my legal team because of his uncompromising attitude. In conclusion, in as much as I would like jurors one, eight and 11 on my legal team, I believe the “12 Angry Men” portrayed diverse strengths and weaknesses which enabled their cause in the legal process to achieve a successful murder tri Works Cited Wikapaedia

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