Twelve Angry Men Read online

  9TH JUROR: Thank you. [To the 7TH JUROR.] This gentleman—[he indicates the 8TH JUROR] has been standing alone against us. He doesn’t say the boy is not guilty. He just isn’t sure. Well, it’s not easy to stand alone against the ridicule of others. He gambled for support and I gave it to him. I respect his motives. The boy on trial is probably guilty. But I want to hear more.

  The 7TH JUROR crosses to the washroom.

  For the time being the vote is ten to two.

  The 7TH JUROR enters the washroom, slams the door after him. I’m talking here. You have no right to…

  8TH JUROR [to the 9TH JUROR]: He can’t hear you. He never will.

  3RD JUROR: Well, if the speech is over, maybe we can go on.

  FOREMAN: I think we ought to take a break. One man’s inside there. Let’s wait for him.

  The FOREMAN moves above the table to where the two knives are stuck into it. He plucks the tagged knife out and closes it.

  12TH JUROR [to the 11TH JUROR]: Looks like we’re really hung up here. I mean, that thing with the old man was pretty unexpected. I wish I knew how we could break this up. [He smiles suddenly.] Y’know, in advertising… I told you I worked at an ad agency, didn’t I?

  The FOREMAN crosses to the door and knocks.

  The GUARD unlocks the door and enters.

  The FOREMAN hands him the knife.

  The GUARD exits, locking the door.

  Well, there are some pretty strange people—not strange, really—they just have peculiar ways of expressing themselves, y’know what I mean?

  The 11TH JUROR nods.

  Well, it’s probably the same in your business—right? What do you do?

  11TH JUROR: I’m a watchmaker.

  12TH JUROR: Really? The finest watchmakers come from Europe, I imagine.

  The 11TH JUROR bows slightly.

  The 6TH JUROR rises, and goes into the lavatory.

  Anyway, I was telling you—in the agency, when they reach a point like this in a meeting, there’s always some character ready with an idea. And it kills me, I mean it’s the weirdest thing sometimes the way they precede the idea with some kind of phrase. Like—oh, some account exec’ll say, “Here’s an idea. Let’s run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it,” or “Put it on a bus and see if it gets off at Wall Street.” I mean, it’s idiotic, but it’s funny.

  The 8TH JUROR goes into the washroom and hangs his jacket on a hook. The 3RD JUROR crosses to the 5TH JUROR.

  3RD JUROR [to the 5TH JUROR]: Look, I was a little excited. Well, you know how it is—I didn’t mean to get nasty or anything.

  The 5TH JUROR crosses away from the 3RD JUROR without answering. The 7TH JUROR steps away from the washbasin and dries his hands. The 8TH JUROR crosses to the washbasin.

  7TH JUROR [to the 8TH JUROR]: Say, are you a salesman?

  8TH JUROR: I’m an architect.

  7TH JUROR: You know what the soft sell is? You’re pretty good at it. I’ll tell ya. I got a different technique. Jokes. Drinks. Knock ’em on their asses. I made twenty-seven thousand last year selling marmalade. That’s not bad. Considering marmalade. [He watches the 8TH JUROR for a moment.] What are ya getting out of it—kicks? The boy is guilty, pal. So let’s go home before we get sore throats.

  8TH JUROR: What’s the difference whether you get one here or at the ball game?

  7TH JUROR: No difference pal. No difference at all.

  The 7TH JUROR goes back into the jury room.

  The 6TH JUROR enters from the lavatory, goes to the washbasin and washes his hands.

  6TH JUROR [to the 8TH JUROR]: Nice bunch of guys.

  8TH JUROR: I guess they’re the same as any.

  6TH JUROR: That loud, heavyset guy, the one who was tellin’ us about his kid—the way he was talking—boy, that was an embarrassing thing.

  8TH JUROR: Yeah.

  6TH JUROR: What a murderous day. You think we’ll be here much longer?

  8TH JUROR: I don’t know.

  6TH JUROR: He’s guilty for sure. There’s not a doubt in the whole world. We shoulda been done already. Listen, I don’t care, y’know. It beats workin’.

  The 8TH JUROR smiles.

  You think he’s innocent?

  8TH JUROR: I don’t know. It’s possible.

  6TH JUROR: I don’t know you, but I’m bettin’ you’ve never been wronger in your life. Y’oughta wrap it up. You’re wastin’ your time.

  8TH JUROR: Suppose you were the one on trial?

  6TH JUROR: I’m not used to supposing. I’m just a working man. My boss does the supposing. But I’ll try one. Suppose you talk us all outa this and the kid really did knife his father?

  The 6TH JUROR looks at the 8TH JUROR for a moment, then goes into the jury room. The 8TH JUROR stands alone for a few moments and we know that this is the problem that has been tormenting him. He does not know, and never will. He switches out the washroom light and goes into the jury room.

  FOREMAN: OK, let’s take seats.

  2ND JUROR: Looks like we’ll be here for dinner.

  FOREMAN: OK. Let’s get down to business. Who wants to start it off?

  There is a pause, then the 4TH and 6TH JURORS start to speak at the same time.

  6TH JUROR and 4TH JUROR [together]: Well, I'd like to make a point.

  6TH JUROR [to the 4TH JUROR]: Pardon me. May be it would be profitable…

  4TH JUROR [to the 6TH JUROR]: I'm sorry, go ahead.

  6TH JUROR: I didn’t mean to interrupt.

  4TH JUROR: No. Go ahead. It’s all right.

  6TH JUROR: Well. I was going to say, well, this is probably a small point, but anyway… [To the 8TH JUROR.] The boy had a motive for the killing. You know, the beatings and all. So if he didn’t do it, who did? Who else had the motive? That’s my point. I mean, nobody goes out and kills someone without a motive, not unless he’s just plain nuts. Right?

  8TH JUROR: As far as I know, we’re supposed to decide whether or not the boy on trial is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. We’re not concerned with anyone else’s motives here. That’s a job for the police.

  4TH JUROR: Very true. But we can’t help letting the only motive we know of creep into our thoughts, can we? And we can’t help asking ourselves who else might have had a motive. Logically, these things follow. [He nods toward the 6TH JUROR.] This gentleman is asking a reasonable question. Somebody killed him. If it wasn’t the boy, who was it?

  3RD JUROR: Modjelewski.

  7TH JUROR: You’re talking about the man I love!

  4TH JUROR: If you haven’t got anything to add besides jokes, I suggest you listen.

  3RD JUROR: OK. It’s just letting off steam. I’m sorry. Go ahead.

  4TH JUROR [to the 8TH JUROR]: Well, maybe you can answer me. Who else might have killed the father?

  8TH JUROR: Well, I don’t know. The father wasn’t exactly a model citizen. The boy’s lawyer outlined his background in his closing statement. He was in prison once. He was known to be a compulsive gambler and a pretty consistent loser. He spent a lot of time in neighborhood bars and he’d get into fistfights sometimes after a couple of drinks. Usually over a woman. He was a tough, cruel, primitive kind of man who never held a job for more than six months in his life. So here are a few possibilities. He could have been murdered by one of many men he served time with in prison. By a bookmaker. By a man he’d beaten up. By a woman he’d picked up. By any one of the people he was known to hang out with.

  10TH JUROR: Boy-oh-boy, that’s the biggest load of crap I ever… Listen, we know the father was a bum. So what has that got to do with anything?

  8TH JUROR: I didn’t bring it up. I was asked who else might have killed him. I gave my answer.

  9TH JUROR [pointing at the 4TH JUROR]: That gentleman over there asked a direct question.

  10TH JUROR: Everyone’s a lawyer!

  3RD JUROR: Look, suppose you answer this for me. The old man who lived downstairs heard the kid yell out, “I’m going to kill you.” A split second later he heard a bo
dy hit the floor. Then he saw the kid run out of the house. Now what does all that mean to you?

  8TH JUROR: I was wondering how clearly the old man could have heard the boy’s voice through the ceiling.

  3RD JUROR: He didn’t hear it through the ceiling. His window was open and so was the window upstairs. It was a hot night, remember?

  8TH JUROR: The voice came from another apartment. It’s not easy to identify a voice, especially a shouting voice.

  FOREMAN: He identified it in court. He picked the boy’s voice out of five other voices, blindfolded.

  8TH JUROR: That was just an ambitious district attorney putting on a show. Look, the old man knows the boy’s voice very well. They’ve lived in the same house for years. But to identify it positively from the apartment downstairs… Isn’t it possible he was wrong—that maybe he thought the boy was upstairs and automatically decided that the voice he heard was the boy’s voice?

  4TH JUROR: I think that’s a bit far-fetched.

  10TH JUROR: Brother, you can say that again. [To the 8TH JUROR.] Look. The old man heard the father’s body falling and then he saw the boy run out of the house fifteen seconds later. He saw the boy.

  12TH JUROR: Check. And don’t forget the woman across the street. She looked right into the open window and saw the boy stab his father. I mean, isn’t that enough for you?

  8TH JUROR: Not right now. No, it isn’t.

  7TH JUROR: How do you like him? It’s like talking into a dead phone.

  4TH JUROR: The woman saw the killing through the windows of a moving elevated train. The train had six cars and she saw it through the windows of the last two cars. She remembered the most insignificant details. I don’t see how you can argue with that.

  3RD JUROR [to the 8TH JUROR]: Well, what have you got to say about it?

  8TH JUROR: I don’t know. It doesn’t sound right to me.

  3RD JUROR: Well, suppose you think about it. [To the 12TH JUROR.] Lend me your pencil.

  The 12TH JUROR hands the pencil to the 3RD JUROR, who starts to draw what is obviously a tic-tac-toe pattern on the pad.

  8TH JUROR: I wonder if anybody has any idea how long it takes an elevated train…

  The 8TH JUROR sees the 3RD JUROR and the 12TH JUROR playing tic-tac-toe, snatches up the pad, tears off the top sheet, crumples it and drops it in the wastebasket.

  3RD JUROR: Wait a minute!

  8TH JUROR: This isn’t a game.

  3RD JUROR [shouting]: Who do you think you are?

  12TH JUROR [to the 3RD JUROR]: All right, take it easy.

  FOREMAN: Come on now, sit down.

  3RD JUROR: I’ve got a good mind to belt him one.

  FOREMAN: Now, please! I don’t want any fights in here.

  3RD JUROR: Did you see him? The nerve! The absolute nerve!

  10TH JUROR: All right. Forget it. It’s not important. Know what I mean?

  3RD JUROR: “This isn’t a game.” Who does he think he’s dealing with here?

  FOREMAN: Come on, now. It’s all over. Let’s take our seats.

  3RD JUROR: What’s all over? I want an apology.

  6TH JUROR: OK, noisy. He apologizes. Now let’s hear what the man has to say.

  8TH JUROR: Thank you. I wonder if anybody has an idea how long it takes an elevated train going at medium speed to pass a given point?

  7TH JUROR: What has that got to do with anything?

  8TH JUROR: How long? Take a guess.

  4TH JUROR: I wouldn’t have the slightest idea.

  8TH JUROR: [to the 5TH JUROR]: What do you think?

  5TH JUROR: I don’t know. About ten or twelve seconds, maybe.

  3RD JUROR: What’s all this for?

  8TH JUROR: I’d say that was a fair guess. Anyone else?

  11TH JUROR: That sounds right to me.

  10TH JUROR: Come on, what’s the guessing game for?

  8TH JUROR [to the 2ND JUROR]: What would you say?

  2ND JUROR: Ten seconds. Approximately.

  4TH JUROR: All right. Say ten seconds. What are you getting at?

  8TH JUROR: This. It takes a six-car el train ten seconds to pass a given point. Now say that given point is the open window of the room in which the killing took place. You can almost reach out the window of that room and touch the el tracks. Right?

  5TH JUROR: Right.

  8TH JUROR: All right. Now let me ask you this—has anyone here ever lived right next to the el tracks?

  6TH JUROR: Well, I just finished painting an apartment that overlooked an el line. I’m a house painter, y’know. I was there for three days.

  8TH JUROR: What was it like?

  6TH JUROR: What d’ya mean?

  8TH JUROR: Noisy?

  6TH JUROR: Brother! Well, it didn’t matter. We’re all punchy in our business, anyway. [He laughs.]

  8TH JUROR: I lived in a second-floor apartment next to an el line once. When the window’s open and the train goes by, the noise is almost unbearable. You can’t hear yourself think.

  3RD JUROR: OK. You can’t hear yourself think. Will you get to the point?

  8TH JUROR: I will. Let’s take two pieces of testimony and try to put them together. First, the old man in the apartment downstairs. He says he heard the boy say, “I’m going to kill you” and a split second later he heard the body hit the floor. One second later. Right?

  2ND JUROR: That’s right.

  8TH JUROR: Second, the woman in the apartment across the street. She claimed that she looked out of her window and saw the killing through the last two cars of a passing elevated train. Right? The last two cars.

  3RD JUROR: All right. What point are you making here?

  8TH JUROR: Now, we agreed that an el train takes about ten seconds to pass a given point. Since the woman saw the stabbing through the last two cars, we can assume that the body fell to the floor just as the train passed by. Therefore, the el train had been roaring by the old man’s window for a full ten seconds before the body fell. The old man, according to his own testimony, hearing “I’m going to kill you” and the body falling a split second later, would have had to hear the boy make this statement while the el was roaring past his nose. It’s not possible that he could have heard it.

  3RD JUROR: That’s idiotic! Sure he could have heard it.

  8TH JUROR: [to the 3RD JUROR]: Do you think so?

  3RD JUROR: The old man said the boy yelled it out. That’s enough for me.

  8TH JUROR: If he heard anything at all, he still couldn’t have identified the voice with the el roaring by.

  3RD JUROR: You’re talking about a matter of seconds here. Nobody can be that accurate.

  8TH JUROR: Well, I think that testimony that could put a human being into the electric chair should be that accurate.

  5TH JUROR: I don’t think he could have heard it.

  6TH JUROR: Yeah. Maybe he didn’t hear it. I mean, with the el noise…

  3RD JUROR: What are you people talking about?

  5TH JUROR: Well, it stands to reason. . .

  3RD JUROR: You’re crazy! Why should he lie? What’s he got to gain?

  9TH JUROR: Attention, maybe.

  3RD JUROR: You keep coming up with these bright sayings. Why don’t you send one in to a newspaper? They pay three dollars.

  6TH JUROR [to the 3RD JUROR]: Hey! What’re ya talking to him like that for?

  The 3RD JUROR looks at the 6TH JUROR, then turns disgustedly away. The 6TH JUROR reaches out and turns the 3RD JUROR firmly around by the arm.

  A guy who talks like that to an old man oughta really get stepped on y’know.

  3RD JUROR: Get your hands off me!

  6TH JUROR: You oughta have some respect, mister. If you say stuff like that to him again—I’m gonna lay you out.

  The 6TH JUROR releases the 3RD JUROR and speaks to the 9TH JUROR.

  Go ahead. You can say anything you want. Why do you think the old man might lie?

  9TH JUROR: It’s just that I looked at him for a very long time. The seam of his jacket was sp
lit under his arm. Did you notice it? I mean, to come into court like that. He was a very old man with a torn jacket and he walked very slowly to the stand. He was dragging his left leg and trying to hide it because he was ashamed. I think I know him better than anyone here. This is a quiet, frightened, insignificant old man who has been nothing all his life, who has never had recognition, his name in the newspapers. Nobody knows him, nobody quotes him, nobody seeks his advice after seventy-five years. That’s a very sad thing, to be nothing. A man like this needs to be recognized, to be listened to, to be quoted just once. This is very important. It would be so hard for him to recede into the background…

  7TH JUROR: Now, wait a minute. Are you trying to tell us he’d lie just so that he could be important once?

  9TH JUROR: No. He wouldn’t really lie. But perhaps he’d make himself believe that he’d heard those words and recognized the boy’s face.

  10TH JUROR: Well, that’s the most fantastic story I’ve ever heard. How can you make up a thing like that? What do you know about it?

  The 9TH JUROR lowers his head, embarrassed.

  4TH JUROR: Gentlemen, this case is based on a reasonable and logical progression of facts. Let’s keep it there.

  11TH JUROR: Facts may be colored by the personalities of the people who present them.

  2ND JUROR: Anybody want a cough drop?

  10TH JUROR: I’ll take one.

  The 2ND JUROR offers the cough drops to the 10TH JUROR. The 10TH JUROR takes one.

  Thanks.

  12TH JUROR: Say what you like, I still don’t see how anybody can think the boy’s not guilty.

  8TH JUROR: There’s another thing I wanted to talk about for a minute. I think we’ve proved that the old man couldn’t have heard the boy say, “I’m going to kill you,” but supposing—

  10TH JUROR: You didn’t prove it at all. What are you talking about?

  8TH JUROR: But supposing he really did hear it. This phrase, how many times has each of us used it? Probably hundreds. “I could kill you for that, darling.” “If you do that once more, Junior, I’m going to kill you.” “Come on, Rocky, kill him.” We say it every day. It doesn’t mean we’re going to kill someone.

  3RD JUROR: Wait a minute! What are you trying to give us here? The phrase was, “I’m going to kill you,” and the kid screamed it out at the top of his lungs. Don’t tell me he didn’t mean it. Anybody says a thing like that the way he said it, they mean it.