12 Angry Men - Reginald Rose (1953) and Sidney Lumet (1957) - To what extent is debate necessary for a trial in the American Democracy?

Extract

[...] In the trial of the film 12 Angry Men, we might wonder how reliable are the testimonies. In fact, juror 8 is doing the lawyer job in document He questions the testimony of the old man. The elderly heard the body fell on the floor but at the same time the El train passed by which makes it impossible to hear a sound like that. The Juror 8 wants the group think about it and not just believe what justice said because justice should be fair but sometimes it isn't. [...]

[...] 12 Angry Men - Reginald Rose (1953) and Sidney Lumet (1957) - To what extent is debate necessary for a trial in the American Democracy? This File is made-up of three documents. Document A is a still from the film 12 Angry Men entitled « Preliminary vote ». The film is a courtroom drama, it was directed by Sidney lumet and released in 1957. Document B is a literary extract from a play called 12 Angry Men written for television by Reginald Rose and published in 1953. [...]

[...] Hearing that number 11 is angry he says it's not right to change his vote because of the majority. Number 7 doesn't seems to realise that he will be responsible for the boy's death. Number 11 forces Juror 7 to tell his mind and why did he really change his vote for. He repeats the words : « guilty » and « not guilty » Him realise the important of his vote. The debate is tough because of the death penalty. [...]

[...] During a debate people discuss and argue about a subject, each one of them tries to convince the other ones. Convincing speech can be found in document C. Juror number 11 tries to persuade juror number 7 to make his decision By telling is opinion. He uses the personal pronoun « you » l many times and he asks juror number 7 direct questions. The first one is an open direct question : « what you think is right ? [...]

[...] » l.1 and by asking their opinion, for example : « What do you think ? » l.6. He also says « right? » at the end of his affirmation to mark a point : « That's the testimony, right ? » l.18. Moreover, the art of debate is made with disagreement. Document A communicate a serious situation, the still of the film is in black and white and the jury faces are firm. In the picture we can see that the jury is casting their preliminary vote, everyone is raising their hands as they agree that the defendant is guilty but juror 8 is the only one who doesn't raise his hand which means he thinks the boy is not guilty. [...]