Twelve Angry Men (play)

Twelve Angry Men is a theatre play by Reginald Rose first staged in 1955 and adapted from his 1954 teleplay of the same title for the CBS Studio One anthology television series. As in the other versions, twelve jurors decide the fate of a boy on trial for murder.

Act I

3rd Juror: I've sat on juries, and it always amazes me the way these lawyers can talk, and talk and talk, even when the case is as obvious as this one. I mean, did you ever hear so much talk about nothing?
2nd Juror: Well, I guess they're entitled.
3rd Juror: Sure they are. Everybody deserves a fair trial. That's the system. Listen, I'm the last one to say anything against it, but I'm telling you sometimes I think we'd be better off if we took these tough kids and slapped 'em down before they make trouble, you know? Save us a lot of time and money.
- p. 7

8th Juror: OK, eleven to one - "guilty." Now we know where we are.
10th Juror: Boy-oh-boy! There's always one.
7th Juror: [after a pause] So, what do we do now?
8th Juror: Well, I guess we talk.
- p. 11

10th Juror: What do you want?
8th Juror: Nothing. I just want to talk.
7th Juror: Well, what's there to talk about? Eleven men here agree. Nobody had to think twice about it, except you.
10th Juror: I want to ask you something. Do you believe his story?
8th Juror: I don't know whether I believe it or not. Maybe I don't.
7th Juror: So what'd you vote "not guilty" for?
8th Juror: There were eleven votes for "guilty." It's not easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first.
7th Juror: Who says it's easy for me?
8th Juror: No one.
7th Juror: What, just because I voted fast? I think the guy's guilty. You couldn't change my mind if you talked for a hundred years.
8th Juror: I'm not trying to change your mind. It's just that we're talking about somebody's life here. I mean, we can't decide in five minutes. Suppose we're wrong?
- p. 12

10th Juror: What are we sitting here for?
8th Juror: Maybe for no reason. I don't know. Look, this boy's been kicked around all his life. You know-living in a slum his mother dead since he was nine. He spent a year and a half in an orphanage while his father served a jail term for forgery. That's not a very good head start. He's had a pretty terrible sixteen years. I think maybe we owe him a few words. That's all.
- p. 16

3rd Juror: Now listen to me, you people. I've seen all kinds of dishonesty in my day - but this little display takes the cake. You come in here with your sanctimonious talk about slum kids and injustice, and you make up some wild stories, and all of a sudden you start getting through to some of these old ladies in here. Well, you're not getting through to me. I've had enough. What's the matter with you people? Every one of you knows this kid is guilty. He's got to burn. We're letting him slip through our fingers here.
8th Juror: Slip through our fingers? Are you his executioner?
3rd Juror: I'm one of 'em.
8th Juror: Maybe you'd like to pull the switch.
3rd Juror: For this kid? You bet I'd like to pull the switch.
8th Juror: I'm sorry for you.
3rd Juror: Don't start with me now.
8th Juror: Ever since we walked into this room you've been behaving like a self-appointed public avenger.
3rd Juror: I'm telling you now! Shut up!
8th Juror: You want to see this boy die because you personally want it, not because of the facts.
3rd Juror: Shut up!
8th Juror: You're a sadist!
3rd Juror: Shut up, you son of a bitch!
- p. 47

5th Juror: You still don't think there's any room for reasonable doubt?
7th Juror: No, I don't.
11th Juror: Pardon. Maybe you don't understand the term "reasonable doubt."
7th Juror: What d'ya mean, I don't understand it? Who the hell are you to talk to me like that? How d'ya like this guy? I'm tellin' ya they're all alike. He comes over to this country running for his life and before he can even take a big breath he's telling us how to run the show. The arrogance of the guy!
5th Juror: You mean you're calling him arrogant because he wasn't born here? Well, I'm calling you arrogant because you were. How's that?
- p. 55

11th Juror: I beg pardon, in discussing-
10th Juror: I beg pardon. What are you so damn polite about?
11th Juror: For the same reason you're not. It's the way I was brought up.
- p. 57

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...Well, 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 tell 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 tall. 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 half a foot taller than you are.
- p. 60

10th Juror: We're facing a danger here. Don't you know it? These people are multiplying. That kid on trial, his type, they're multiplying five times as fast as we are. That's the statistic. Five times. And they are - wild animals. They're against us, they hat us, they want to destroy us. That's right. Don't look at me like that! There's a danger. For God's sake, we're living in a dangerous time, and if we don't watch it, if we don't smack them down whenever we can, then they are gonna own us. They're gonna breed us out of existence.
6th Juror: Ah, shut up!
10th Juror: Now you goddamned geniuses had better listen to me. They're violent, they're vicious, they're ignorant, and they will cut us up. That's their intent. To cut us up. I'm warning you. This boy, this boy on trial here. We've got him. That's on at least.I say get him before his kind gets us. I don't give a damn about the law. Why should I? They don't.
- p. 65

8th Juror: It's very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth. Well, I don't think any real damage has been done here. Because I don't really know what the truth is. No one ever will, I suppose. Nine of us now seem to feel that the defendant is innocent, but we're just gambling on probabilities. We may be wrong. We may be trying to return a guilty man to the community. No one can really know. But we have a reasonable doubt, and this is the safeguard that has enormous value in our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it's sure.
- p. 66

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Twelve Angry Men (play)