Twelve Angry Men

by Reginald Rose

  3RD JUROR: And how, brother! As far as I’m concerned that’s the most important testimony in the whole case.

  4TH JUROR: And two: the fact that this woman described the stabbing by saying she saw the boy raise his arm over his head and plunge the knife down into his father’s chest. She saw him do it—the wrong way.

  3RD JUROR: That’s right! That’s absolutely right!

  3TH JUROR: Now, let’s talk about this woman for a minute. She said that she went to bed at about eleven o’clock that night. Her bed was next to the window—and she could look out while lying down and see directly into the boy’s window across the tracks. She tossed and turned for over an hour, unable to fall asleep. Finally, she turned toward the window at about ten minutes after twelve, and, as she looked out, she saw the killing through the windows of the passing el train. She says that the lights went out immediately after the killing but that she got a good look at the boy in the act of stabbing his father. As far as I can see, this is unshakeable testimony. 3RD JUROR: That’s what I mean. That’s the whole case. 4TH JUROR [to the 8TH JUROR]: What do you think?

  The 8TH JUROR remains silent.

  [Looking at the 12TH JUROR.] How about you?

  12TH JUROR: Well—I don’t know. There’s so much evidence to sift. This is a pretty complicated business.

  4TH JUROR: Frankly, I don’t see how we can vote for acquittal.

  12TH JUROR: Well, it’s not so easy to arrange the evidence in order.

  3RD JUROR: You can throw out all the other evidence. The woman saw him do it. What else do you want?

  12TH JUROR: Well, maybe…

  3RD JUROR: Let’s vote on it.

  FOREMAN: OK. There’s another vote called for. Anybody object?

  12TH JUROR: I’m changing my vote. I think he’s “guilty.”

  3RD JUROR: Anybody else? The vote is eight to four.

  11TH JUROR [to the 3RD JUROR]: What makes you consider this one vote a personal triumph?

  3RD JUROR: I’m the competitive type. [To the others.] OK. Now here’s what I think. I think we’re a hung jury. Let’s take it inside to the Judge.

  4TH JUROR: You didn’t want a hung jury before.

  3RD JUROR: Well, I want it now.

  4TH JUROR: I don’t understand that. You thought it was immoral to—

  3RD JUROR: I don’t anymore. There are people in here who are so goddamned 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?

  8TH JUROR: Let’s go over it again.

  3RD JUROR: We went over it again. [He waves toward the 12TH JUROR.] J. Walter Thompson over there is bouncing backward and forward like a tennis ball…

  12TH JUROR: Wait a second. You have no right to…

  The 4TH JUROR removes his spectacles and polishes them.

  3RD JUROR: I apologize on my knees. [To the 8TH JUROR.] Come on. Let’s get out from under this thing.

  4TH JUROR: All right. Maybe we can talk about setting some kind of a time limit. [Still polishing his spectacles, he turns and peers up at the clock.] The time is… [He squints and puts on his spectacles.]

  3RD JUROR: Quarter after six.

  4TH JUROR [looking at the clock]: Quarter after six. [He removes his spectacles and lays them on the table. He looks tired. He closes his eyes and clasps his fingers over the marks left by his spectacles at the sides of his nose. He rubs these areas as he speaks.] Someone before mentioned seven o’clock. I think that’s a point at which we might begin to discuss the question of whether we’re a hung jury or not.

  The 9TH JUROR looks closely at the 4TH JUROR and obviously has thought of something tremendously exciting.

  9TH JUROR [to the 4TH JUROR]: Don’t you feel well?

  4TH JUROR: I feel perfectly well—thank you. [To the others.] I was saying that seven o’clock would be a reasonable time to—

  9TH JUROR: The reason I asked about that was because you were rubbing your nose like… I’m sorry for interrupting. But you made a gesture that reminded me—

  4TH JUROR: I’m trying to settle something here. Do you mind?

  9TH JUROR: I think this is important.

  4TH JUROR: Very well.

  9TH JUROR: Thank you. I’m sure you’ll pardon me for this, but I was wondering why you were rubbing your nose like that?

  3RD JUROR: Ah, come on, now, will ya please!

  9TH JUROR: Right now I happen to be talking to this gentleman here. [To the 4TH JUROR.] Now, why were you rubbing your nose?

  4TH JUROR: Well, if it’s any of your business, I was rubbing it because it bothers me a little.

  9TH JUROR: I’m sorry. Is it because of your eyeglasses?

  4TH JUROR: It is. Now could we get on to something else?

  9TH JUROR: Your eyeglasses make those deep impressions on the sides of your nose. I hadn’t noticed that before. They must be annoying.

  4TH JUROR: They are very annoying.

  9TH JUROR: I wouldn’t know about that. I’ve never worn eyeglasses. [He points to his eyes and smiles.] Twenty-twenty.

  7TH JUROR: Listen, will you come on already with the optometrist bit.

  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.

  8TH JUROR: That’s right, she did.

  There is a silence in the room and then a babble of ad lib conversation.

  9TH JUROR: Please. Just a minute and then I’ll be finished. I don’t know if anyone else noticed that about her. I didn’t think about it then, but I’ve been going over her face in my mind. She had those marks. She kept rubbing them in court.

  5TH JUROR: He’s right. She did do that a lot.

  9TH JUROR: This woman was about forty-five years old. She was making a tremendous effort to look thirty-five for her first public appearance. Heavy make-up. Dyed hair. Brand-new clothes that should have been worn by a younger woman. No eyeglasses. See if you can get a mental picture of her.

  3RD JUROR: What d’ya mean, no glasses? You don’t know if she wore glasses. Just because she was rubbing her nose…

  5TH JUROR: She has those marks. I saw ’em.

  3RD JUROR: So what? What d’ya think that means?

  FOREMAN: Listen, I saw ’em, too. He’s right. I was the closest one to her. She had these deep things, what d’ya call ’em, uh—you know.

  The FOREMAN massages the spot on his nose where they should be.

  3RD JUROR: Well, what point are you making here?

  FOREMAN: She had those marks.

  3RD JUROR: She had dyed hair and marks on her nose. I’m asking ya what does that mean?

  9TH JUROR: Could those marks be made by anything other than eyeglasses?

  4TH JUROR: No. They couldn’t.

  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?

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

  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?

  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?

  6TH JUROR: My wife. Listen, I’m telling ya, as soon as we walk outa the house…

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

  6TH JUROR: Yeah, that’s what I was just gonna say.

  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.

  8TH JUROR [to the 4TH JUROR]: Do you wear your eyeglasses when you go to bed?

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

  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?

  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.

  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?

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

  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!

  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?

  12TH JUROR: Yes. I say “not guilty.”

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

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

  8TH JUROR: How do you vote?

  10TH JUROR: “Not guilty.” Do whatever you want.

  3RD JUROR: You’re the worst son of a… I think he’s guilty.

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

  4TH JUROR: No, I’m convinced.

  3RD JUROR: What’s the matter with you?

  4TH JUROR: I now have a reasonable doubt.

  9TH JUROR: It’s eleven to one.

  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.

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

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

  8TH JUROR: It’s your right.

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

  8TH JUROR: We want your arguments.

  3RD JUROR: I gave you my arguments.

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

  3RD JUROR: Everything—every single thing that came out in that courtroom, but I mean everything, says he’s guilty. Do you think I’m an idiot or something? You lousy bunch of bleeding hearts. You’re not goin’ to intimidate me. I’m entitled to my opinion. I can sit in this goddamn room for a year. Somebody say something.

  The others watch silently.

  Why don’tcha take that stuff about the old man—the old man who lived there—and heard everything. Or take the knife, what—just because he—found one like it? The old man saw him. Right there on the stairs. What’s the difference how many seconds it took? What’s the difference? Every single thing. The knife falling through a hole in his pocket—you can’t prove that he didn’t get to the door. Sure you can hobble around the room all you want, but you can’t prove it. I’m telling you every single thing that went on has been twisted and turned in here. That business with the glasses, how do you know she didn’t have them on? The woman testified in court. Well, what d’ya want? That’s it.

  The others are silent.

  That’s the whole case.

  The others are silent.

  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 goddamn rotten kid. I know him. What they’re like. What they do to you. How they kill you every day. My God, don’t you see? How come I’m the only one who sees? Jeez, I can feel that knife goin’ in.

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

  4TH JUROR: Let him live.

  There’s a long pause.

  3RD JUROR: All right. “Not guilty.”

  The FOREMAN moves to the door and knocks on it.

  The GUARD unlocks the door and enters.

  FOREMAN: We have a verdict.

  GUARD: All right, gentlemen. Take your seats in the jury box. The GUARD exits.

  The FOREMAN and the other JURORS collect their jackets, etc., and all except the 3RD and the 8TH JURORS follow him off. The 3RD JUROR remains seated. Finally only he and the 8TH JUROR remain in the room. The 8TH JUROR puts on his own jacket and brings the 3RD JUROR’s jacket to him. The 3RD JUROR rises. The 8TH JUROR helps him on with his jacket. The 3RD JUROR exits.

  The 8TH JUROR follows, but pauses at the door and looks back at the empty jury room. The knife still sticks into the table. The 8TH JUROR exits. The rain has stopped.

  CURTAIN