"12 Angry Men," A Film Classic

The playwright Reginald Rose's jury room drama, 12 Angry Men, began as a one-hour play performed live on network television in 1954. When it became a feature-length movie, released in 1957, it was a box office flop, despite receiving widespread critical acclaim.

Decades later, writes Phil Rosenzweig, in his book, 12 Angry Men: Reginald Rose and the Making of an American Classic (Fordham University Press, 2021), it "is revered as one of America's greatest motion pictures," written by one of television's Golden Age writers.

The stage play version, popular with both professional and amateur productions, caused one current critic to note that the play "still manages to grip an audience as though it were ripped from today's headlines." One New York Times writer, however, called attention to the "legal and social anachronisms" present in the play (and the movie) such as an all-white, all-male jury, the allowing of jurors to smoke in the jury room, and the mandatory death penalty (in New York State). There is one other anachronism, Juror #8 (Henry Fonda's character in the movie) brings a switchblade knife to the jury room that's similar to the one used as evidence in the murder trial. Today, with metal detectors present at the courthouse entrance, the knife would have been immediately confiscated by court officers.

Otherwise, I agree with the Times writer's assessment that "the play [as well as the movie] remains fresh, engaging, and powerful."

Jury Fraud, A Threat or Not?

Cornelia "Libby" Winslow is a novelist and the protagonist in Laura Van Wormer's 1995 novel, Jury Duty (Crown Publishing). Libby is also juror number three and brings up an issue that has never crossed my mind and, unlike jury tampering, never gets reported on in the news--jury fraud.

After recently serving two days as a potential juror, her thoughts struck a chord with me: "Not once in this entire process had anyone ever asked her for an ID. For all they knew, Cornelia Winslow could have paid someone to show up at jury duty for her. Then she wondered what would happen if someone was found not guilty in a trial, only to find out later that one of the jurors had been an impostor. What happened then?"

At a time when many state and congressional legislators are clamoring about voter fraud and advocating that voters show photo ID before they are allowed to vote, this particular issue doesn't seem to be of any concern to them.

It would be interesting to learn if jury fraud has ever happened in the history of American jurisprudence. And if so, what were the consequences?

When Jury Duty Calls

This week I postponed jury duty for the fourth (and final, I hope) time. I go back in a couple of months. I decided that I will make the experience more tolerable by killing two birds with one stone: take notes about my observations during jury duty and read and review for this blog Jury Duty, a 1996 courtroom thriller by Laura Van Wormer (Crown Publishers) and make contrasts and comparisons.

I began reading Jury Duty when I got it in 1996 but I never got past page 122. My failure to complete the book had nothing to do with it not being interesting. Unfortunately, other things intruded. Now I have an incentive to finish it.