Twelve Angery Men – Revamping The Jury System Essay, Research Paper
Our countries jury system is fair and just, but not flawless. In the short story Twelve Anger Men, by Reginald Rose, some of these problems are made clear. Three problems that are evident are that there must be an unanimous vote for a verdict, the jury is not allowed to ask questions or take notes during the trial. With adequate changes our nations jury system could be more efficient and accurate.
Unanimous voting is a good idea on a non-partial jury. If one juror that won?t change their mind for any reason the whole process comes to a halt and there is a hung jury. This problem is shown in Twelve Angry Men when juror #3 says, ?I will never change my mind.? (page, author). Some sort of change should me made to remedy this situation.
In Twelve Angry Men the defendant had a lawyer that did not ask some important questions during the trial. During the deliberation the jury was unsure of some details because the lawyer never asked. The jury should be allowed to ask questions during the trials. The jury would then have a more accurate picture of what happened, leading to a more accurate verdict.
Juries are generally not allowed to take notes during a trial. When it come time for the jury to deliberate they don?t have any thing to go on but what they remember and what?s in the transcripts. Looking through the transcripts to find something can take quite a bit of time. If the jury were allowed to take notes some cases would be much shorter. Notes can also be more accurate than transcripts. A juror can write down the expression on someone?s face or the way they say something. Transcripts can?t do that. These reasons all show that our nations jury system needs to be revamped for a quicker more actuate trials. Our nations policies are intended to be fair for everybody, but do need to be changed over the years.