3RD JUROR: Wel, that’s the most ridiculous thing I ever . . . You took an oath in the courtroom. You can’t just quit.
10TH JUROR: Why not?
3RD JUROR: It’s dishonest. Why don’t you vote “not guilty”?
10TH JUROR: I voted guilty because I think he’s guilty.
3RD JUROR: But now you don’t care what happens?
10TH JUROR: No. Why should I?
4TH JUROR: Al right, let’s stop this. We’re not going to get anywhere like this.
10TH JUROR: Wel, what does he want? I gave my honest opinion.
4TH JUROR: I know.
10TH JUROR: I suppose you don’t think much of it?
4TH JUROR: No, I don’t. The FOREMAN opens the washroom door.
FOREMAN: Uh—we’d like to get going in here again, if you don’t mind.
The 4TH JUROR leaves the washroom.
10TH JUROR [ to the 3RD JUROR]: How about him? Is that something?
3RD JUROR: A hung jury doesn’t mean anything. They just have to start the trial with another jury. That’s not what we’re here for.
10TH JUROR: What the hel’s the difference? A hung jury is what you’re gonna get.
FOREMAN: Look, would you please . . .
The 10TH JUROR strides out of the washroom, the 3RD JUROR switches out the light and comes slowly into the room.
10TH JUROR: Listen, I’l tel 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 into the Judge and let the kid take his chances with twelve other guys.
8TH JUROR: I don’t think the court wil accept a hung jury. We haven’t been in here very long.
7TH JUROR: Wel, let’s find out.
11TH JUROR: I’m not in favor of this.
7TH JUROR [ to the 11TH JUROR]: Listen, this kid wouldn’t stand a chance with another jury and you know it. [ To the others. ] Come on, we’re hung. Nobody’s gonna change his opinion. Let’s take it inside.
5TH JUROR: You stil don’t think there’s any room for reasonable doubt?
7TH JUROR: No, I don’t.
11TH JUROR: Pardon. Maybe you don’t fuly understand the term “reasonable doubt.”
7TH JUROR: What d’ya mean, I don’t understand it? Who the hel are you to talk to me like that? [ To the others. ] How d’ya like this guy? I’m tel in’ ya they’re al alike. He comes over to this country running for his life and before he can even take a big breath he’s tel ing us how to run the show. The arrogance of the guy!
5TH JUROR [ to the 7TH JUROR]: You mean you’re caling him arrogant because he wasn’t born here? Wel , I’m cal ing you arrogant because you were. How’s that?
11TH JUROR: Please, please. It doesn’t matter.
7TH JUROR: Look, sonny, nobody around here’s gonna tel me what words I understand and what words I don’t. [ He points to the 11TH JUROR.] Especial y him.
Because I’l knock his goddamn Middle European head off.
FOREMAN: Al right. Let’s stop arguing for two minutes in here. Can’t we stick to the subject?
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 kil ing took place, couldn’t name the pictures he saw or the stars who appeared in them. [ He points to the 4TH JUROR.] This gentleman has repeated that point in here several times.
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 al .
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?
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.
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?
4TH JUROR: Under great emotional stress.
8TH JUROR: He remembered the movies in court. He named them correctly and he named the stars who played in them.
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’l 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.
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?
10TH JUROR: Come on, what is this?
4TH JUROR [ to the 10TH JUROR]: It’s perfectly al right. [ To the 8TH JUROR.] I went from court to my office and stayed there til eight thirty. Then I went straight home to bed.
8TH JUROR: And the night before that?
4TH JUROR: That was—Tuesday. I—was—oh, yes. That was the night of the bridge tournament. I played bridge.
8TH JUROR: And Monday night.
7TH JUROR: When you get him down to New Year’s Eve, nineteen fifty lemme know.
4TH JUROR [ trying to remember]: Monday. [ He pauses. ] Monday night. [ He remembers. ] Monday night my wife and I went to the movies.
8TH JUROR: What did you see?
4TH JUROR: The Scarlet Circle. It’s a very clever whodunit.
8TH JUROR: What was the second feature?
4TH JUROR [ straining]: The . . . I’l tel you in a minute. The—Remarkable Mrs.
Something. Mrs.—uh—Mainbridge. No, Bainbridge. The Remarkable Mrs.
Bainbridge.
2ND JUROR: Excuse me. I saw that. It’s caled The Amazing Mrs. Bainbridge.
4TH JUROR: The—Amazing Mrs. Bainbridge. Yes. I think that’s right.
8TH JUROR: Who was in The Amazing Mrs. Bainbridge?
4TH JUROR: Barbara—Long, I think. She’s a dark, very pretty girl. Barbara—Lang—
Lane—something like that.
8TH JUROR: Who else?
The 4TH JUROR takes a handkerchief and mops his suddenly sweating forehead.
4TH JUROR: Wel, I’d never heard of them before. It was a very inexpensive second feature, with unknown . . .
8TH JUROR: And you weren’t under an emotional strain, were you?
4TH JUROR: No, I wasn’t.
9TH JUROR: I think the point is made.
10TH JUROR: Big point!
9TH JUROR: I think it is a big point.
10TH JUROR: What? Just because he can’t remember the name of some two-bit movie star? I suppose that proves the kid was at the movies.
9TH JUROR: No. But it indicates that no one can prove he wasn’t. He might have been at the movies and forgotten what he saw. It’s possible. If it’s perfectly normal for this gentleman [ he indicates the 4TH JUROR]—to forget a few details, then it’s also perfectly normal for the boy. Being accused of murder isn’t necessarily supposed to give him an infal ible memory.
10TH JUROR [ to the 9TH JUROR]: You can talk til your tongue is draggin’ on the floor. The boy is guilty. Period. Know what I mean, my friend? Who’s got those cough drops?
2ND JUROR: They’re al gone, my friend.
FOREMAN: Y’know, there’s something we’re forgetting here that I was just thinking about. That whole business with the psychiatrist that dragged on forever.
10TH JUROR: Now don’t start with al that phoney psycho-whatever-you-cal-it-stuff.
What a racket that is! Fil ing people’s heads with al that junk. Listen, I’ve got three psychiatrists keeping their cars i
n one of my garages. The whole three of ’em are crazy.
FOREMAN: Listen, there’s a point I’m tryin’ to make here. Do you mind?
10TH JUROR: I wouldn’t give you a nickel for a psychiatrist’s testimony.
8TH JUROR: Why don’t you let the man talk? You can take five minutes on the uselessness of psychiatry when he’s finished.
FOREMAN: What I was gonna say was, the psychiatrist definitely stated that the boy had strong homicidal tendencies. I mean, that he was, what d’ya cal it—capable of committing murder. He described al those tests, inkblots and al that stuff, and he said the kid is definitely a kil er type. Am I right?
12TH JUROR: Check. I think he said something about paranoid tendencies if I’m not mistaken.
FOREMAN: Right. Whatever that is, he said it. Let’s not forget, we’re talking about a boy who always had murder on his mind.
12TH JUROR: His unconscious mind.
FOREMAN: Nobody else’s.
11TH JUROR: I beg pardon, in discussing—
10TH JUROR: I beg pardon. What are you so goddamn polite about?
11TH JUROR: For the same reason you’re not. It’s the way I was brought up. [ He turns to the others. ] In discussing such a thing as the murder potential we should remember that many of us are capable of committing murder. But few of us do. We impose controls upon ourselves to prevent it. The most these psychiatric tests can accomplish along these lines is this: they can tel us that someday a particular person may commit a murder. That’s al . They prove nothing.
4TH JUROR: Then how come they’re admitted in evidence?
11TH JUROR: They have many uses, of course. In this case they added to the general impression the prosecution was trying to create. Perhaps we would find that if we twelve men took the same tests, one or two of us might be discovered to have unconscious desires to kil , and the potentiality of carrying them out. Yet none of us has. To say that a man is capable of murder does not mean that he has committed murder.
10TH JUROR: But it can mean it. Listen, if they said the kid is capable of kiling, he could’ve kil ed, couldn’t he?
8TH JUROR: You’re the one who said, and I quote, “I wouldn’t give you a nickel for a psychiatrist’s testimony.”
10TH JUROR: Boy, I’m teling you . . . [ He crosses to the 8TH JUROR.] I’d like to . . .
[ He stops. ]
The 8TH JUROR does not look up at him. The 10TH JUROR crosses angrily away.
6TH JUROR: What time is it?
7TH JUROR: It’s five of six. Man, look at that rain.
12TH JUROR: There goes your bal game.
2ND JUROR [ to the 8TH JUROR]: Say, could I see that knife for a second?
The 8TH JUROR slides the knife across the table to the 2ND JUROR, who opens and examines it.
FOREMAN: Wel, we’re stil tied up six to six. Who’s got a suggestion?
12TH JUROR: I have. Let’s get some dinner.
5TH JUROR: Why don’t we wait til seven? Give it another hour.
12TH JUROR: OK with me.
2ND JUROR: Um—there’s something I’d like to say. I mean, it’s been bothering me a little and as long as we’re stuck. . . . Wel , there was this whole business about the stab wound and how it was made, the downward angle of it, you know?
3RD JUROR: Don’t tel me we’re gonna start with that. They went over it and over it.
2ND JUROR: I know they did, but I don’t go along with it. The boy is five feet, seven inches tal . His father was six two. That’s a difference of seven inches. It’s a very awkward thing to stab down into the chest of someone who’s more than a half a foot tal er than you are.
3RD JUROR [ crossing to the 2ND JUROR and indicating the knife]: Give me that.
The 2ND JUROR hands the knife to the 3RD JUROR.
Look, you’re not gonna be satisfied til you see it again. I’m gonna give you a demonstration. Somebody get up.
There is a pause. No one moves for a moment, and then the 8TH JUROR rises and crosses to the 3RD JUROR. They stand looking at each other.
OK. [ To the 2ND JUROR.] Now, watch this. I don’t want to have to do it again. [ He turns to the 8TH JUROR, looks squarely at him, and squats to make himself shorter. ] I’m six or seven inches shorter than you. Right?
2ND JUROR: That’s right. Maybe a little more.
3RD JUROR: OK. Let it be more.
The 3RD JUROR flicks open the knife, changes its position in his hand and holds it aloft, ready to stab downwards.
The 8TH JUROR and the 3RD JUROR look steadily at each other, then the 3RD
JUROR suddenly stabs downward, hard.
2ND JUROR: Look out!
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?
8TH JUROR: No. Nobody’s hurt.
3RD JUROR: Al right. There’s your angle. Take a look at it. Down and in. That’s how I’d stab a tal er man in the chest and that’s how it was done. Now go ahead and tel me I’m wrong. The 3RD JUROR hands the knife to the 8TH JUROR and crosses away. The 12TH JUROR crosses to the 8TH JUROR and using his closed hand, simulates stabbing the 8TH JUROR in the chest.
12TH JUROR: Down and in. I guess there’s no argument.
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.
8TH JUROR: Have you seen them used in fights?
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.
8TH JUROR: How do you use it?
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.
8TH JUROR: Are you sure?
5TH JUROR: I’m sure.
The 5TH JUROR closes the blade and flicks it open again. That’s why they’re made like this.
8TH JUROR: Everyone agreed that the boy is pretty handy with a knife, didn’t they?
5TH JUROR: That’s right.
8TH JUROR [ to the 5TH JUROR]: Do you think he would have made the kind of wound that kil ed his father?
5TH JUROR: Not with the experience he’d had with these things. No, I don’t think he would. He’d go for him underhanded . . .
3RD JUROR: How do you know? What—were you in the room when the father was kil ed?
5TH JUROR: No, and neither was anyone else.
The 5TH JUROR sticks the knife in the table and crosses away.
3RD JUROR [ to the 8TH JUROR]: You’re giving us a lot of mumbo-jumbo here. I don’t believe it.
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.
8TH JUROR [ looking at the 12TH JUROR]: What do you think? The 12TH JUROR
hesitates for a moment. He is confused, but trying to be honest.
12TH JUROR: Wel—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?
The 7TH JUROR looks around the table momentarily.
4TH JUROR: Just a minute. According to the woman across the street . . .
7TH JUROR: Listen, I’l tel you something. I’m a little sick of
this whole thing already.
Al this yakkin’s gettin’ us nowhere so I’m going to break it up here. I’m changing my vote to “not guilty.”
3RD JUROR: You’re what?
7TH JUROR: You heard me. I’ve had enough.
3RD JUROR: What d’you mean—you’ve had enough? That’s no answer.
7TH JUROR: Hey, listen you! Just worry about yourself!
11TH JUROR [ crossing to the 7TH JUROR]: He’s right. That is not an answer. What kind of man are you? You have sat here and voted guilty with everyone else because there are some basebal tickets burning a hole in your pocket. Now you have changed your vote because you say you’re sick of al the talking here.
7TH JUROR: Listen. buddy—
11TH JUROR: You have no right to play like this with a man’s life. This is a terrible and ugly thing to do. Don’t you care . . . ?
7TH JUROR: Now, wait a minute. You can’t talk like that to me!
11TH JUROR: I can talk like that to you. If you want to vote not guilty, then do it because you’re convinced the man is not guilty—not because you’ve had enough.
And if you think he’s guilty, then vote that way, or don’t you have the guts to do what you think is right?
7TH JUROR: Now, listen. . .
11TH JUROR: Guilty or not guilty?
7TH JUROR: I told you—not guilty.
11TH JUROR: Why?
7TH JUROR: Goddamn you. I don’t have to—
11TH JUROR: You do have to. Say it. Why?
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.
8TH JUROR: Mr. Foreman, I want another vote.
FOREMAN: OK, there’s another vote caled for.
The JURORS cross to their chairs and sit.
I guess the quickest way is a show of hands. Anybody object? There is no answer.
Al those voting “not guilty” raise your hands.
The 2ND, 5TH, 6TH, 7TH, 8TH, 9TH, and 11TH JURORS raise their hands immediately.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.
The 12TH JUROR ’s face is a mask of indecision, then he suddenly raises his hand.
Twelve Angry Men Page 7