...the 3rd, 7th, 10th and 2nd jury members and their apparent lack of compassion and sympathy for a boy none of them know that is on trial for a murder case 2. How easily the other, quieter jury members where influenced by authority/ influential members of the jury team (juror 8, juror 3) 3. The American justice system in the 1950s to today’s views on punishment 4. The 1950s and how social/ political and economic choices all influenced the juror’s decisions in the murder case Title, author Context Contention However statement Twelve Angry Men, a play by Reginald Rose, unfolds within the archetypical and unceasing setting of a 20th Century American court room. The audience bear witness to the procession of a court case in which twelve jury members are set to delegate a murder case where the defendant is a young African American boy who is on trial for the alleged killing his father after a heated argument between the accused and the victim. The play’s theme of prejudice is heavily shown to be a prominent theme in which the majority of the jury members make hasty and potentially deadly decisions based on a pre-existing judgement based on the ill-conceived philosophies of that time period, and of what the America justice system should be for the white community and the black community. The theme of prejudice is indicated through the repetitive nastiness and vindictiveness of all of the jurors at the start but especially from the 2nd, 3rd, 7th and the 10th jurors throughout...
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...dysfunctional properties of the 12-jury men play a big role in analysing and evaluating the main purpose at hand, namely identifying the young man guilty or innocent for the murder of his father. The different roles the 12-jury men play in the deliberation of the capital murder case is prominent. Firstly, a role can be defined as a set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit. Different groups enforce different role requirements on individuals namely; role expectation, role perception and role conflict. (i) Role expectation: Role expectation can be defined as the role others believe a person should play or the way others believe a person should act in a given situation. When looking at the Jurors’ main role in any court system and in the film, it is expected of them to decide whether or not the defendant should be declared guilty or not guilty. (ii) Role perception: Role perception can be defined as the individual’s view of how he or she should act in a given situation. When looking at the film the Jurors individual frame of position and prejudices influence how they individually perceive the case. Because the Jurors perceptions are unique it leads to complications in the communication process. In the film “12 Angry men” Juror no. 3 decides beforehand that it is an “open and shut case”. He validates his verdict by using emotionally laden language which eventually influences and persuades the other jury members. “This kid’s a dangerous...
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...Twelve Angry Men 12 angry men is a production about a murder trial. A boy that could be looked on as guilty from the word go, is put up to the jury to decide his fait. The boy has a background of violence and crime and has been brought up in a slum. The jury is almost certain of the boys guilt. Every member of the jury votes guilty but ONE and so the jury is forced to sit it out and make a decision. We started off the production by choosing who the director would be. In the director we looked for someone that was a good actor himself so that he could speak from personal experience. Also we wanted someone that people could respect and would give thought to his ideas. The people we chose to be or directors were Craig and Bill we chose Craig because of his talent as an actor. Craig has been a good director so far, we decided that Craig would be the director for act I. act I is full of key scenes that need to be presented to the audience in a understanding way. Bill was also chosen for the director of act II, bill was chosen because of his potential. I think because in the class work we have done he has shown really good initiative. For example in a piece of improvisation work he had the idea that if they turned all the lights off their words would have more of an impact and it did it worked like charm. He also has a good imagination I could see this when he was telling me what he would do as director. We decided to choose the directors...
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...There are many reasons why jurors can be challenged for cause. It is mandatory that all potential jurors are 18 years old. Not only should they be physically able to attend the trial, but they have to be mentally competent to withstand all the questions asked and make ethical decisions. In addition, a person cannot serve on the jurors if they were an eye witness to the case being tried. Voir dire is the initial phase of a trial. This process of elimination is called challenged for cause. Unlike peremptory challenge, there are multiple causes for potential jurors to be elimination. If a person is not at the age 18, he or she cannot serve as a juror and must reside within the court of law’s dominion. Furthermore, it is imperative that all candidates has to show proof that he or she is a resident of the United...
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...where the first left off – there is no change in chronology. • With no scene divisions, the progress of the play can be measured by the votes which take place, functioning as a kind of pulse, reminding the audience where the jury’s opinion stands on the defendant’s conviction. These moments serve as markers for the audience on the journey through the play, helping to structure the action. • The play follows the three classical unities of theatre derived from Aristotle: - Unity of action: there should be only one central plot (the jury’s deliberations and decisions). - Unity of time: In real and continuous time where there are no shifts in chronology (no breaks in play). - Unity of place: Action occurs in only one single location (the jury room). • Allows the audience to feel very close to characters, their relationships and the conflict and challenges with which they are faced in deciding the defendant’s fate. • Intensifies sense of realism and is particularly effective because of the claustrophobic nature of the setting. Language • Rose’s characters use naturalistic, everyday language appropriate to the times and for the audience. • Heightened poetic or symbolic language is rarely used, instead speaking in concrete terms about the details at hand. • They are generally differentiated by the content of their speech rather than style. For example, 8th sometimes pauses while he speaks, demonstrating his calm, reasoned nature as well as the fact that he is uncertain about...
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...Summary The play is set in a New York City Court of Law jury room in 1957. The play opens to the empty jury room, and the Judge’s voice is heard, giving a set of final instructions to the jurors. We learn that this is a murder case and that, if found guilty, the mandatory sentence for the accused is the death penalty. After these instructions, the jurors enter. The men file in and decide to take a short break before deliberating. They complain that the room is hot and without air-conditioning; even the fan doesn’t work. All the jurors presume the obvious guilt of the defendant, whom we learn has been accused of killing his father. Eventually, the twelve sit down and a vote is taken. All of the jurors vote “guilty,” except for the 8th Juror, who votes “not guilty,” which, due to the requirement of a unanimous jury, forces them to discuss the case. The jurors react violently against this dissenting vote. Ultimately, they decide to go around the table, explaining why they believe the boy to be guilty, in hopes of convincing 8th Juror. Through this discussion we learn the following facts about the case: an old man living beneath the boy and his father testified that he heard upstairs a fight, the boy shouting, “I’m gonna kill you,” a body hitting the ground, and then he saw the boy running down the stairs. The boy claimed he had been at the movies while his father was murdered, but couldn’t remember the name of the movies or who was in them. A woman living across the street...
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...Twelve Angry Men Essay The 3rd Juror says that “everybody deserves a fair trial.” Does the defendant in this case get a fair trial? Twelve Angry Men, a play by Reginald Rose, was written in 1955 at a time when America was involved in a cold war with communist countries. It shows the strength of a deliberative process that enables individuals, who have “nothing to gain or lose,” to reach a verdict. In the American jury system “everybody deserves a fair trial” and in Twelve Angry Men the defendant gets a very fair trial. All the jurors have their own opinions on the case but in the end a decision is made. The jury, and the audience, never discovers if in fact the defendant did murder his father. His guilt or innocence seems to be almost irrelevant. At the beginning of the play the vote was 11-1 in favour of guilty but the 8th Juror convinces the others to have another vote. As the play progresses more and more jurors being to change their vote and by the end of the play the vote was 11-1 in favour of ‘not guilty.’ The defendant does get a fair trial because throughout the play there was enough “reasonable doubt” for him to be guilty. The 10th juror had no intentions on giving the defendant a ‘fair trial’ and just wanted him to be sent to the “electric chair.” By the play’s end all twelve men had agreed to a “not guilty” vote. The 8th Juror had managed, by simply pointing out “sometimes the facts that are staring you in the face are wrong!” to convince even the strongest advocates...
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... The play we read “twelve angry men” shows how a jury makes such an important decision of either sending the defendant to his death or keeping him alive – the jury determinates the fate of a 16 year old boy. As the title suggests that there are 12 men in the jury who do not know one another, and do not know the defendant, but these jurors have to work as one united group to argue and reach an agreement. They all have to be convinced wither the boy is guilty or not. The trial is about a sixteen year old boy accused with the murder of his father. The story has no plot because it tells us how these 12 jurors argue about the case in a small room and reach the final decision. They have to think as a group because, otherwise, it could not work, that means that they will get to the wrong decision, and cause or the release of a killer or the death of an innocent young man. The play emphasizes how they deal with the case and how they make a decision vital for the boy’s life. The jury is actually a group of randomly chosen members of society. Each one of them represents a particular class of the society, not only as a mass of people, but also the way this class of society thinks and behaves. Therefore, every one of them is sensitive to different issues and social norms and also each one of them confirms to different society standards and values of society. It is very important to note that each one of the characters- the jurors- is an ordinary person, has an ordinary life, problems...
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...The storm can reflect the juror’s feelings. The play was set in NY 1957 which is the hottest day in the year. The storm is brewing. As tempers fray and patient was tested, the prejudice of some jurors was revealed. In ACT 2 there is the “calm” before the storm, and just like the weather, the impending storm within is about to erupt. “The sound of the rain “is heard, but no respite is achieved within the room. The rain which then “splashes in” the window is closed off- symbolizing that a cleansing or a relief is not possible for these men and thus escape from moral responsibility is impossible. The sound of rain with its beating against the window plus the flicking of the fluorescent lights adds further aural and visual discordance to both jurors and audience. Remember the audience is part of the jury too. Audiences are not only analyze the feelings of the jurors but they can analyse the feelings of the jurors from the weather The setting is the juror’s room- a place where democracy fairness debate and innocence are paramount. A large, drab, bare in need of painting with three windows, in the back wall through which can be seen in NY skyline, Rose might suggest audiences that the room was lack of attention, jurors may care to justice and the pursuit of truth. And the door was locked, the skyline views create a sense of being close in and enhanced the idea of claustrophobia, there is onwhere for the men to go to escape the tension other than the wash room, sometimes the dialogues...
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...American jury system, the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago catalog an impressive list of aims, objectives, and principles that an assembled panel of jurors are to realize in practice and embody in theory. Thematically, some purposes are primarily concerned with immediate, practical outcomes, e.g., achieving fair and impartial justice, assessing evidence, and determining guilt/liability or innocence. Others tend to emphasize the philosophical and theoretical reasons for the existence and use of the trial by jury system, e.g., fighting corruption, giving the people a voice in government, improving the efficiency of the legal system, and serving as a proxy “school” for popular education in democratic principles.1 It is said that the system of trial by jury is “...older than the Republic itself.”2 As a cultural and political institution, the jury is perceived as a bedrock of constitutional government, a veritable “bulwark of democracy.” The essence of the trial system is guaranteed and provided for by way of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 14th amendments and is purported as being indicative and representative of the American system of political organization, that is, a system of government where power is derived from the popular consent of the governed. As these things go, the very existence of criticism leveled at the trial by jury system generally, and the supposed purposes to which this system serves particularly, is evidence that in a variety of instances the jury system fails...
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...organizational culture, conflict management and then, there’s an introduction of Fiedler’s leadership model. The setting of the movie offers consistency, investment, rigidity, autonomy and fairness in terms of assessing different levels of conflict and negotiation. I would say that the most evident styles of conflict in the movie are accommodating, compromising and collaborating conflict resolution styles. The jury is involved in a high profile case about a young boy who, if found guilty, then he will be sent to the electric chair. There are several topics that are related to organizational management class that will be portrayed throughout this jury process. The jury, in determining the fate of the young man, who murdered his father, must closely work together and whether consciously or unconsciously, they have been introduced to the forming, storming, norming, performing and transforming, that are involved in the group formation process. The conflict resolution styles will later work but they were laid in motion by Juror 8. When the movie starts, eleven jurors believe that they have been presented with an easy case to handle. They thought that they would just deliberate and soon everyone will be going home early. They are locked in a room...
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...12 Angry Men Briefly summarize each act of the play. Act I: After hearing a case of a young man who is accused of killing his father and is now on trial, the twelve jurors enter a vacant room to discuss the trial. If the twelve jurors find him guilty the mandatory sentence is the death penalty. The twelve men take a vote and they all find the young man guilty except for one juror… the 8th juror. The other jurors become angry with him for making it a difficult process but decide to go around the table to discuss why they think the young man is guilty in attempt to change the 8th jurors mind. The 8th juror is still sure in his decision and explains to the other jurors that the murder weapon could've been available to anyone, it wasn't one of a kind. He proves this by displaying his own replica of the murder weapon, shocking the other jurors....
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...Psychologists’ Roles within the Legal System Introduction There are many roles a forensic psychologist can choose to take part in, within the legal system, such as; the basic scientists, the applied scientists, policy evaluator, forensic evaluator, and consultant. Each of these roles has different duties/ responsibilities and may assist in or concentrate in different areas/ environments within the legal system. As a psychologist, within the legal system you will examine many individuals from the police officer to the victim. Being a psychologist within the legal system has many ethical obligations or issues that can arise. With this in mind, I will discuss more in detail the roles a psychologist plays in each environment within the legal system and some of the ethical issues. Basic Scientist There are many environments a forensic psychologist may choose to take part in. These environments are law enforcement, corrections, court system, and academic. Even though a psychologist can play a role in many environments, not all environments need every role of the psychologist. ”A basic scientist pursues knowledge for its own sake and studies a phenomenon for the satisfaction of understanding it and contributing to scientific advances in the area” (Greene, & Hailbrun, 2010 p18). As a basic scientist, there are some opportunities for the psychologists, in law enforcement and corrections. The psychologist can do training in a specific area; if the psychologist has knowledge of the...
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...The People vs Demonte M. Anderson Trial On Multiple Charges 10th Circuit Court, Saginaw, Michigan Presiding Judge: The Honorable Darnell Jackson February 7, 2013 @ 9:30 A.M. On Thursday, February 7th, I went to the Saginaw County Courthouse to observe a trial going on in the 10th Circuit Court. Circuit court adjudicates, and disposes of all felony matters, makes civil determinations in excess of $25,000, and hears appeals from district court. On this date, I was able to witness part of a trial, in the courtroom of the Honorable Darnell Jackson. The defendant Demonte M. Anderson, was brought up on the following charges, three counts of assault with intent to murder, a single count of armed robbery, and seven firearm offenses. If Mr. Anderson was convicted of all of these charges, it would be expected that he would be serving multiple years in prison. On May 5th, 2012, there was a large party at the Celebration Hall on Wheeler Street in Saginaw, Michigan. As the party was wrapping up, just before two in the morning, several people stepped outside to talk. It was then presented to the court, and jury that another male stepped outside as well. It is alleged that Mr. Anderson walked up behind this person, and grabbed him. He then told the victim to empty out his pockets, and take off the items around his neck. The victim was Travon McDuffy, who lost a watch, and large pendant chain necklace. Mr. McDuffy testified that he sensed something hard being pressed up against...
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...I. The Right to a Trial by Jury: The Threat of Extinction, Limited Availability & Reduced Effectiveness Contrary to what may be a common public perception, jury trials are a dying breed in America. Jury trials have been declining steadily for the past thirty years. “If the trend continues, within the foreseeable future, civil jury trials in America may eventually become…extinct.” This may seem surprising because the U.S. Constitution ensures the right to a jury trial in criminal trials under the 6th Amendment and in civil trials through the 7th Amendment. The reality, however, is that parties are finding more effective, faster, and more cost-effective means of adjudicating legal disputes through alternative dispute resolution (ADR) forums that are evolving to an ever-increasing degree. The American Jury Project (AJP) of 2005, a national symposium of the American Bar Association, was held to establish the standards and principles for juries and jury trials. Principle 1 states that “the right to a jury trial should be preserved; however, the lack of available jurors and the rules and procedures used in the jury selection process have reduced its effectiveness and have made this means of seeking justice a slow, unpredictable, and expensive gamble that is driving parties to seek ADR through other forums. One author described a powerful contradiction in the jury system that confronts people in America: “We love the idea of the jury but hate the way it works....
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