Pg. 41 - 64

Question 1

FOREMAN: That sounds fair. Anyone object? The last vote was eight to four in favor of guilty. All right. I’ll call off your jury numbers. I vote “guilty.” … Number Eight?

Answer 1

8TH JUROR: “Not Guilty.”

Question 2

9TH JUROR: That’s exactly the point this gentleman [She indicates the 8TH JUROR.] has been making. I mean, you keep shouting at the top of your lungs . . .

Answer 2

The 8TH JUROR puts his hand on the 9TH JUROR’s arm. The 9TH JUROR looks at him and sits.

Question 3

FOREMAN: Wow! Look at that come down, will ya? Think it’ll cool things off?

Answer 3

8TH JUROR: Yeah, I guess so.

Question 4

10TH JUROR: Listen, I’ll tell you what I think. We’re goin’ nowhere here. I’m ready to walk into court right now and declare a hung jury.

7TH JUROR: I go for that, too. Let’s take it in to the Judge and let the kid take his chances with twelve other people.

Answer 4

8TH JUROR: I don’t think the court will accept a hung jury. We haven’t been in here
very long.

Question 5

7TH JUROR: Look, sweetheart, nobody around here’s gonna tell me what words I understand and what words I don’t. [She points to the 11TH JUROR.] Especially him. Because I can talk such a blue streak of good old American English it’ll make his tiny Middle-European head spin.

FOREMAN: All right. Let’s stop arguing for two minutes in here. Can’t we stick to the subject?

Answer 5

8TH JUROR: I’d like to go over something, if you gentlemen don’t mind. An important point for the prosecution was the fact that the boy, after he claimed he was at the movies during the hours the killing took place, couldn’t name the pictures he saw or the stars who appeared in them. [He points to the 4TH JUROR.] The lady here has repeated that point in here several times.

Question 6

4TH JUROR: That’s correct. It was the only alibi the boy offered and he himself couldn’t back it up with any details at all.

Answer 6

8TH JUROR: Putting yourself in the boy’s place, if you can, do you think you’d be able to remember details after an upsetting experience such as being struck in the face by your father?

Question 7

4TH JUROR: I think so, if there were any special details to remember. He couldn’t remember the movies at the theater he named because he wasn’t there that night.

Answer 7

8TH JUROR: According to the police testimony in court he was questioned by the police in the kitchen of his apartment while the body of his father was lying on the floor in the bedroom. Do you think you could remember details under such circumstances?
4TH Juror: I do.
8TH Juror: Under great emotional stress?

Question 8

4TH JUROR: Under great emotional stress.

Answer 8

8TH JUROR: He remembered the movies in court. He named them correctly and he named the stars who played in them.

Question 9

4TH JUROR: Yes, his lawyer took great pains to bring that out. He had three months from the night of the murder to the day of the trial in which to memorize them. I’ll take the testimony of the policeman who interrogated him right after the murder, when he couldn’t remember a thing about the movies, great emotional stress or not.

Answer 9

8TH JUROR: I’d like to ask you a personal question.
4TH JUROR: Go ahead.
8TH JUROR: Where were you last night?
4TH JUROR: I was home.
8TH JUROR: What about the night before last?

Question 10

4TH JUROR [to the 10TH JUROR]: It’s perfectly all right. [To the 8TH JUROR.] I went from court to my sister’s home and visited there till eight thirty. Then I went straight home to bed.

Answer 10

8TH JUROR: And the night before that?

Question 11

4TH JUROR: That was—Tuesday. I—was—oh, yes. That was the night of the bridge tournament. I played bridge.

Answer 11

8TH JUROR: And Monday night.

Question 12

4TH JUROR [trying to remember]: Monday. [She pauses.] Monday night. [She remembers.] Monday night my husband and I went to the movies.

Answer 12

8TH JUROR: What did you see?

Question 13

4TH JUROR: The Scarlet Circle. It’s a very clever whodunit.

Answer 13

8TH JUROR: What was the second feature?

Question 14

4TH JUROR: The—Amazing Mrs. Bainbridge. Yes. I think that’s right.

Answer 14

8TH JUROR: Who was in The Amazing Mrs. Bainbridge?

Question 15

4TH JUROR: Reginald—Long, I think. He’s a tall, very handsome fellow. And, Barbara—Lang—Lane—something like that.

Answer 15

8TH JUROR: Who else?

Question 16

4TH JUROR: Well, I’d never heard of them before. It was a very inexpensive second feature, with unknown . . .

Answer 16

8TH JUROR: And you weren’t under an emotional strain, were you?

Question 17

10TH JUROR: I wouldn’t give you a nickel for a psychiatrist’s testimony.

Answer 17

8TH JUROR: Ma’am, please let the man talk. We can listen to five minutes on the uselessness of psychiatry when he’s finished.

Question 18

10TH JUROR: But it can mean it. Listen, if they said the kid is capable of killing, he could’ve killed, couldn’t he?

Answer 18

8TH JUROR: You’re the one who said, and I quote, “I wouldn’t give you a nickel for a psychiatrist’s testimony.”

Question 19

The blade stops about an inch from the 8TH JUROR’s chest. The 8TH JUROR does not move. The 3RD JUROR smiles.
6TH JUROR: That’s not funny.
5TH JUROR: What’s the matter with you?
3RD JUROR: Now just calm down. Nobody’s hurt. Right?

Answer 19

8TH JUROR: No. Nobody’s hurt.

Question 20

5TH JUROR [moving to the 8TH JUROR]: Wait a minute. Give me that.
The 8TH JUROR hands the knife to the 5TH JUROR. He closes the knife and holds it gingerly.
I hate these things. I grew up with them.

Answer 20

8TH JUROR: Have you seen them used in fights?

Question 21

5TH JUROR: Too many of them. On my stoop. In my backyard. In the lot across the street. Switch knives came with the neighborhood where I lived. Funny, I wasn’t thinking of it. I guess you try to forget those things. You don’t use this kind of knife that way. You have to hold it like this to release the blade. In order to stab downward, you would have to change your grip.

Answer 21

8TH JUROR: How do you use it?

Question 22

5TH JUROR: Underhanded.
The 5TH JUROR flicks the knife open and, holding it underhanded, swings round and slashes swiftly forward and upward.
Like that. Anyone who’s ever used a switch knife’d never handle it any other way.

Answer 22

8TH JUROR: Are you sure?

Question 23

5TH JUROR: I’m sure.
The 5TH JUROR closes the blade and flicks it open again. That’s why they’re made like this.

Answer 23

8TH JUROR: Everyone agreed that the boy is pretty handy with a knife, didn’t they?

Question 24

8TH JUROR: Everyone agreed that the boy is pretty handy with a knife, didn’t they?
5TH JUROR: That’s right.

Answer 24

8TH JUROR [to the 5TH JUROR]: Do you think he would have made the kind of wound that killed his father?

Question 25

4TH JUROR: I don’t think you can determine what type of wound this boy might or might not have made simply because he knows how to handle a knife. 3RD JUROR: That’s right. That’s absolutely right.

Answer 25

8TH JUROR [looking at the 12TH JUROR]: What do you think? The 12TH JUROR hesitates for a moment. She is confused, but trying to be honest. 12TH JUROR: Well—I don’t know . . . 3RD JUROR: What d’ya mean—you don’t know? 12TH JUROR: I don’t know. 8TH JUROR [to the 7TH JUROR]: What about you?

Question 26

7TH JUROR [in a low voice]: I—don’t think he’s guilty.’ The 11TH JUROR looks disgustedly at the 7TH JUROR, then moves to his chair. The 7TH JUROR stands defeated.

Answer 26

8TH JUROR: Mr. Foreman, I want another vote.

Question 27

4TH JUROR: We’ve heard enough. Sit down. And don’t open your filthy mouth again. The 4TH and 10TH JURORS stare at each other. Finally, the 10TH JUROR turns away, crosses to a chair and sits with his back to the others. The other JURORS [including the 5TH and 11TH JURORS] slowly cross to their seats.

Answer 27

8TH JUROR: It’s very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth. Well, I don’t think any real damage has been done here. Because I don’t really know what the truth is. No one ever will, I suppose. Nine of us now seem to feel that the defendant is innocent, but we’re just gambling on probabilities. We may be wrong. We may be trying to return a guilty man to the community. No one can really know. But we have a reasonable doubt, and this is a safeguard that has enormous value in our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it’s sure. We nine can’t understand how you three are still so sure. Maybe you can tell us.

Question 28

3RD JUROR: I don’t anymore. There are people in here who are so darn stubborn that you can’t even . . . We’ll never get this thing done. We’ll be here for a week. Well, I want to hear an argument. I say we’re a hung jury. [He turns to the 8TH JUROR.] Come on. You’re the leader of the cause. What about it?

Answer 28

8TH JUROR: Let’s go over it again.

Question 29

9TH JUROR [to the 4TH JUROR]: The woman who testified that she saw the killing had these same deep marks on the sides of her nose.

Answer 29

8TH JUROR: That’s right, she did...! There is a silence in the room and then a babble of ad lib conversation.

Question 30

3RD JUROR [to the 4TH JUROR]: Listen, what are you saying here? I didn’t see any marks. 4TH JUROR: I did. Strange, but I didn’t think about it before. 3RD JUROR: Well, what about the lawyer? Why didn’t he say anything?

Answer 30

8TH JUROR: There are twelve people in here concentrating on this case. Eleven of us didn’t think of it, either.

Question 31

3RD JUROR: OK, Clarence Darrow. Then what about the District Attorney? You think he’d try to pull a trick like that, have her testify without glasses?

Answer 31

8TH JUROR: Did you ever see a woman who had to wear glasses and didn’t want to because she thinks they spoil her looks?

Question 32

6TH JUROR: Yeah, my friend Rhonda. Listen, I’m telling ya, as soon as she steps outa the house . . .

Answer 32

8TH JUROR: Maybe the District Attorney didn’t know, either.

Question 33

3RD JUROR: OK. She had marks on her nose. I’m givin’ ya this. From glasses. Right? She never wore ’em out of the house so people’d think she was gorgeous. But when she saw this kid kill his father she was in the house. Alone. That’s all.

Answer 33

8TH JUROR [to the 4TH JUROR]: Forgive me, but do you wear your eyeglasses when you go to bed, ma’am?

Question 34

4TH JUROR: No, I don’t. No one wears eyeglasses to bed.

Answer 34

8TH JUROR: It’s logical to say that she wasn’t wearing them while she was in bed, tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep.

Question 35

8TH JUROR: It’s logical to say that she wasn’t wearing them while she was in bed, tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep. 3RD JUROR: How do you know?

Answer 35

8TH JUROR: I don’t know. I’m guessing. I’m also guessing that she probably didn’t put on her glasses when she turned and looked casually out of the window. And she herself said that the murder took place just as she looked out and the lights went off a split second later. She couldn’t have had time to put glasses on then. 3RD JUROR: Wait a second . . . 8TH JUROR: And here’s another guess. Maybe she honestly thought she saw the boy kill his father. I say that she saw only a blur.

Question 36

3RD JUROR: How do you know what she saw? How does he know all these things? [To the 8TH JUROR.] You don’t know what kind of glasses she wore. Maybe she was farsighted. Maybe they were sunglasses. What do you know about it?

Answer 36

8TH JUROR: I only know that the woman’s eyesight is in question now.

Question 37

11TH JUROR: She had to identify a person sixty feet away in the dark, without glasses. 2ND JUROR: You can’t send someone off to die on evidence like that. 3RD JUROR: Don’t give me that!

Answer 37

8TH JUROR: Don’t you think that the woman might have made a mistake? 3RD JUROR: No! 8TH JUROR: It’s not possible? 3RD JUROR: No! It’s not possible. 8TH JUROR [to the 12TH JUROR]: Is it possible?

Question 38

8TH JUROR [to the 12TH JUROR]: Is it possible? 12TH JUROR: Yes. I say “not guilty.”

Answer 38

8TH JUROR [to the 10TH JUROR]: Do you still think he’s guilty?

Question 39

10TH JUROR: Yes, I think he’s guilty. But I couldn’t care less. You smart alecks do whatever you want to do.

Answer 39

8TH JUROR: How do you vote?

Question 40

10TH JUROR: “Not guilty.” Do whatever you want. 3RD JUROR: You’re the worst son of a . . . I think he’s guilty.

Answer 40

8TH JUROR: Does anyone else think he’s guilty?

Question 41

3RD JUROR: Well, what about all the other evidence? What about all that stuff—the knife—the whole business? 2ND JUROR: You said we could throw out all the other evidence.

Answer 41

8TH JUROR [to the 3RD JUROR]: You’re alone.

Question 42

3RD JUROR: I don’t care whether I’m alone or not. It’s my right.

Answer 42

8TH JUROR: It’s your right.

Question 43

3RD JUROR: Well, what d’ya want? I say he’s guilty.

Answer 43

8TH JUROR: We want your arguments.

Question 44

3RD JUROR: I gave you my arguments.

Answer 44

8TH JUROR: We’re not convinced. We want to hear them again. We have as much time as it takes.

Question 45

3RD JUROR: That whole thing about hearing the boy yell? The phrase was “I’m gonna kill you.” That’s what he said. To his own father. I don’t care what kind of man that was. It was his father. That darn rotten kid. I know him. What they’re like. What they do to you. How they kill you every day. Come on, people! Don’t you see? How come I’m the only one who sees? Man, I can feel that knife goin’ in.

Answer 45

8TH JUROR: It’s not your boy. He’s somebody else.