Pre Law Homework: What Did You Notice About The Jury Room?

1.What did you notice about the jury room? Do you think these conditions had any bearing on the verdict?
Yes. The jury room had a large subconscious impact upon all actors in the room. The environment of the jury room was strict and stressful. It had a claustrophobic effect and increased the seriousness and uneasiness of the atmosphere.
2. Where did the boy claim he was during the crime?
The kid claimed that he was out watching theater during the time of the murder.
3. What were the charges against the boy and his sentence?
The boy was charged with 1st degree murder and sentence to the electric chair.
4. There were 3 different ways the jury voted to see where they stood on the vedict. What were they?
The 3 different ways that the jury voted were Preliminary vote, secret written ballot, and Call out voting.
5. One juror claimed the woman was the most compelling statement of the case- what happened to discredit her?
The jury had a long conversation and concluded that she might not have had enough time to wear her glasses before looking out the window.
6. How did they sit in the jury room? (how were they organized)
The jurors were seated around a long conference table inside a cramped and uncomfortable room.
7. Toward the middle of the movie, one juror said “he got a fair trial.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement and why?
I agree that he had a fair trial, but I only agree to it in terms of “fair” as seen from a “legal” perspective. The accused may have been put through all the legal processes that one had the right to have, but these legal processes can have corrupted motives just for the case of “legality” and “lawfulness”.
8. One juror asks another juror where he was last night, and the night before, and the night before that- what was the significance of these statements?
The significance of these statements were that these questions triggered some mental reactions and emotional reflections on the juror that was asked. As he answered the questions, his opinions were slowly altered.
9. When the second juror votes not guilty, what was it that he said when he asked why did you do that?
He said that he was touched and convinced by what juror 8 were saying. With the facts and perspectives that #8 were pushing with through.
10. What happen to the last juror who finally voted not guilty? What do you think he realized?
He realized that his vote was greatly influenced by his own personal issues about his own son. He was projecting his own image of pain and punishment to the accused.
11.) Do you think there was any significance to the last scene of the movie when one man asks the other what is your name?
It meant that the man had earned the respect that he deserved. He was being acknowledged as a man who has saved a life and doing it with his human intellect and compassion.
12.) Many of the jurors kept claiming “a kid like that had to do the crime.” What do you think they were referring to?
They were referring to his national ethnicity and background.