Discussions
1.What was the evidence against
the boy?
2.How did it fall piece by piece
through the discussion?
3.What would have happened to
the boy if he had been found
guilty?
About the author
Reginald Rose (1920----) is a native New Yorker, best
known as a writer for television. The Twelve Angry
Men was written in 1954 based on his experience
as a juror. The play was turned into a movie in
1957 with Henry Fonda starring as No.8. The present
text if based on of that movie, with much abridgement.
What distinguished Rose’s teleplays was their
direct preoccupation with social and political issues.
Background Information
Twelve Angry Men was adapted by Reginald Rose in 1950s.
It is about an 18-year-old boy who is on trial for murder,
accused of knifing his father to death. Twelve jurors retire to
the jury room, having been admonished that the defendant
innocent until prevent guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
It turned out that in the voting, all the 11 jurors vote for
conviction, except No.8, who feels there is a reasonable doubt,
which prevents a quick verdict. At last, juror 8 convinces every
man on the jury that the charge to the defendant was not
conclusively proved to convict him .
Useful Legal Terms
Group 1: judicial system (司法制度); judicial
proceedings (诉讼程序): criminal law (刑法); civil
law (民法); criminal court (刑事法庭); civil court (民
事法庭);
Group 2: the accused/ the defendant(被告); the
accuser (原告); the prosecutor (公诉人); defense
lawyer (辩护律师); judge (法官); attorney general (
首席检察官); jury (陪审团); grand jury (大陪审团);
witness (证人); a ex-convict (有前科的人);
Group 3: verdict (陪审团的裁决); sentence (法官的
判决); acquittal (无罪); convict (判决有罪); testify (
作证); testimony (证言); identify (辨认); crossexamination (盘问); appeal (上诉); overrule (驳回
上诉); sustain (法庭确认)
Jury Trial
The jury trial is an important component in
the U.S. judicial system. The jury consists
of 12 jurors, selected at random, agreed on
by the lawyers of the two sides, who will,
after hearing all the evidenced and crossexamination and careful deliberation, give
a verdict of guilty or not guilty. Today no
jury would be made up entirely of men any
more. Women now serve on juries as much
as men.
Court System
① The accused is deemed innocent until and
unless proved “ guilty” beyond a reasonable doubt.
② In many jurisdictions, the majority of a jury is
not sufficient to find a defendant guilty of a felony.
③ A trial does not aim at discovering who commit
a particular crime, but rather the innocence or guilt
of the accused.
④ The system is not infallible and can be quite
precarious.
The Twelve Jurors
A summary of the anonymous characters helps to
flesh out their characters and backgrounds. The
order in which each eventually decides to vote "not
guilty" is given in brackets:
Juror #1 (The Foreman): (Martin Balsam) A highschool assistant head coach, doggedly concerned
to keep the proceedings formal and maintain
authority; easily frustrated and sensitive when
someone objects to his control; inadequate for the
job as foreman, not a natural leader and overshadowed by Juror # 8's natural leadership
Juror #2: (John Fiedler) A wimpy, balding bank
clerk/teller, easily persuaded, meek, hesitant, goes
along with the majority, eagerly offers cough drops
to other men during tense times of argument;
better memory than # 4 about film title
Juror #3: (Lee J. Cobb) Runs a messenger service
(the "Beck and Call" Company), a bullying, rude
and husky man, extremely opinionated and
biased, completely intolerant, forceful and loudmouthed, temperamental and vengeful;
estrangement from his own teenaged son causes
him to be hateful and hostile toward all young
people (and the defendant); arrogant, quickangered, quick-to-convict, and defiant until the
very end
Juror #4: (E. G. Marshall) Well-educated, smug
and conceited, well-dressed stockbroker,
presumably wealthy; studious, methodical,
possesses an incredible recall and grasp of the
facts of the case; common-sensical,
dispassionate, cool-headed and rational, yet stuffy
and prim; often displays a stern glare; treats the
case like a puzzle to be deductively solved rather
than as a case that may send the defendant to
death; claims that he never sweats
Juror #5: (Jack Klugman) Naive, insecure,
frightened, reserved; has a slum-dwelling
upbringing that the case resurrects in his mind; a
guilty vote would distance him from his past;
nicknamed "Baltimore" by Juror # 7 because of his
support of the Orioles; he may be Hispanic but this
is only speculation
Juror #6: (Edward Binns) A typical "working man," dullwitted, experiences difficulty in making up his own mind, a
follower; probably a manual laborer or painter; respectful of
older juror and willing to back up his words with fists
Juror #7: (Jack Warden) Clownish, impatient salesman (of
marmalade the previous year), a flashy dresser, gumchewing, obsessed baseball fan who wants to leave as soon
as possible to attend evening game; throws wadded up
paper balls at the fan; uses baseball metaphors and
references throughout all his statements (he tells the
foreman to "stay in there and pitch"); lacks complete human
concern for the defendant and for the immigrant juror;
extroverted; keeps up amusing banter and even
impersonates James Cagney at one point; votes with the
majority
Juror #8: (Henry Fonda) An architect, instigates a
thoughtful reconsideration of the case against the
accused; symbolically clad in white; a liberalminded, patient truth-and-justice seeker who uses
soft-spoken, calm logical reasoning; balanced,
decent, courageous, well-spoken and concerned;
considered a do-gooder (who is just wasting
others' time) by some of the prejudiced jurors;
named Davis
Juror #9: (Joseph Sweeney) Eldest man in group,
white-haired, thin, retiring and resigned to death
but has a resurgence of life during deliberations;
soft-spoken but perceptive, fair-minded; named
McCardle
Juror #10: (Ed Begley) A garage owner, who simmers with
anger, bitterness, racist bigotry; nasty, repellent, intolerant,
reactionary and accusative; segregates the world into 'us'
and 'them'; needs the support of others to reinforce his
manic rants
Juror #11: (George Voskovec) A watchmaker, speaks with a
heavy accent, of German-European descent, a recent
refugee and immigrant; expresses reverence and respect for
American democracy, its system of justice, and the
infallibility of the Law
Juror #12: (Robert Webber) Well-dressed, smooth-talking
business ad man with thick black glasses; doodles cereal
box slogan and packaging ideas for "Rice Pops"; superficial,
easily-swayed, and easy-going; vacillating, lacks deep
convictions or belief system; uses advertising talk at one
point: "run this idea up the flagpole and see if anybody
salutes it"
About the text
Twelve Angry Men was adapted by Reginald Roes in1950s.
It is about an 18-year-old boy who is on trial for murder,
accused of knifing his father to death .The twelve jurors retire
to the jury room, having been admonished that the defendant
is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It
turned out that in the first voting .all the 11 jurors vote for
conviction. except No.8,who feels there is a reasonable
doubt ,which prevent a quick verdict. The juror8 resolutely
and painstakingly explains his reasons for doing that. During
the heated deliberations, evidence that felt rock-solid is
revealed to be dubious and the hidden preconceptions and
assumptions of the jurors are revealed. At last, juror8
convinces every man on the jury that the charge to the
defendant was not conclusively proved to convict him.
Explanation of the text in
details
Since when is dishonesty a group
characteristic?
I am surprised to hear you that as if
dishonesty has ever been a group characteristic.
This is a retort to No. 10’s remark from No. 9 who
is opposed to stereotyped opinions about the poor
people. Some individuals are dishonest. They
might be rich or poor. It has nothing to do with the
social group they belong to. To condemn a whole
group of people as immoral or inferior is the
common attitude of racists and other bigots.
Innocent until proven guilty. The burden of
proof is on the prosecution.
The American legal system is based on the
confrontation principle with the prosecutor trying
his utmost to prove the accused guilty and the
defense lawyer trying his best to prove his client
not guilty. When all the facts are out, then the jury
makes a decision.
You pulled a real bright trick. Now supposed
you tell me what it proves. Maybe there are 10
knives like that. So what? The discovery of the
age or something.
You performed a really clever trick. Now I
imagine what you are going to prove because he
thinks that No.8 could prove nothing. What
another has just said? You think is the great
discovery of this historical period or what?
Why don’t you drop a quarter in the
collection-box?
Why don’t you just donate some money in
the church if that will make you feel better?
Questions on the text
1.Why doesn’t the author give names to the characters in the
drama? Is this play merely a conflict among people or is it
also a conflict of ideas? Give some comments.
2.What was the evidence presented at the court against the boy?
What would have happened to the boy if he had been found
guilty?
3.What does No.8 do that casts the first serious doubt on the
boy’s guilt? What effect does it have on the second vote?
4.What question does No.8 raised that casts the second doubt
on the boy’s guilt?
Language points
Lay sb. Out to knock sb. down 把…打晕
例： The robber laid the man out. 抢劫犯把这个人
打晕了。
There’s no point standing.
There
‘s no reason why we should all stand here.
(注释) There is no point … 表示“没有什么原因/意
义”。 例：I could see that there was no point in
arguing with him. 我知道和他争论没有什么意义。
Talk it Out to solve Or decide sth .through
discussing 通过讨论来解决或决定某事。
例：We need to spend a little time talking it out . 我
们需要花点时间谈谈，以解决这个问题。
Grammar
exercises
each of the italicized gerund phrase.
Study these sentences and find out the grammatical function of
1.They are the jury for the trial of a boy charged with murdering
his father . (para.1)
2.It’s not easy to send to send the boy off to die without talking
about it first. (para.17)
3.Let’s stop being so sensitive. (para.56)
4.I kept putting myself in the kid’s place. (para.60)
5.A few years later Michael had another good idea, to
trade
stamps by advertising in stamp magazines. (Lesson 3, para.7)
Written work
Translate the passage into English
在一些西方国家，有一条指导刑事法庭的原则，即法
庭必须排除任何在理疑点而确定被告的罪行。也就是说，
被告在被证明有罪之前应被认为是无罪的。有理疑点指
的是一个普通，公正，诚实，理智并且谨慎的人的头脑
里对被告罪行产生的疑点。
从理论上说，在被告被证明有罪之前认为他无罪的观
念能确保不判断，不冤枉好人。在独幕剧《十二个愤怒
的人》中，八号陪审员就是利用这一原则来挽救那个小
伙子的性命。他提出一个又一个有理疑点，最后终于使
其他陪审员同意没有充分的证据证明那小伙子是有罪的。