Twelve Angry Men

A detailed Summary of Twelve Angry Men

The American legal system, based on the ancient idea of "innocent, until proven guilty;" has its share of advantages and disadvantages. They all serve to build a system that has suffered years of trials and tribulations, having lost much of their usefulness in today's world. The cornerstone of the American legal system is the "trial by jury," in which a citizen who has been accused of a crime, has the right to be judged by a group of his fellow citizens, who will have the evidence presented to them, and will subsequently rule based on the evidence as to the accused's guilt or innocence. The assumption in this system is that the jurors will judge their fellow man fairly and without any personal bias. Humans will be humans, however, making this system less than perfect.

An excellent illustration of this point is in Twelve Angry Men, which is a fine example of a story about the conflict when logic and emotion collide. Set against mid-century America, the book revolves around the murder trial involving a troubled boy and his father. Twelve men, essentially strangers to each other, must decide th

Today's judicial system is based on the imperfect thoughts and whims of normal, everyday people. Often, the trial "game" becomes more important than the fact that someone is being judged for what may be a serious crime, which is a terrible shame. So the question that this society must ask itself is, "are we willing to continue using a system which is prone to such biases?" Are there alternatives? Some trial situations are in the hands of a single judge. But even judges have biases. And while judges might be better at putting aside their prejudices, a defendant must wonder if he would fare better with the impartial judge, or the partial jury. Indeed, with the jury system, defendants can often try to express their humanity, in admitting their wrong but hoping that the jury can see themselves in a similar situation and sympathize. The human aspect of the jury has its advantages. But such advantages are often outweighed by verdicts that overlook too much fact in deference to sympathy and understanding. It is difficult to know where to draw the line.

At this stage in the book, the assumption of the other jurors was

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Approximate Word count = 754
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Twelve Angry Men

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