"Twelve Angry Jurors"

by Reginald Rose, adapted by Sherman Sergel

A teenaged Hispanic boy has just been tried for the murder of his father, and the case is now in the hands of the jury. A guilty verdict will send the boy to the electric chair.

The case looks, on the surface, cut and dried, but one juror, despite his own feeling that the defendant is probably guilty, feels that the facts, at very least, merit a cursory review before the jury hands in a guilty verdict. His insistence on a closer examination of the facts seems to rub many on the jury the wrong way as they continue to see the case as open and shut.

Fascinatingly, in examination of the testimony and facts of the case, the experiences, personalities, attributes, limitations, and biases of the individual jurors weave in and out of the deliberation process, at times to its beneift and at times to its detriment. The very elderly juror is the only one that can see a possible motive why an elderly witness may have misled the court in his tetimony. The one fellow that grew up in a rough neighborhood, where he witnessed numerous knife fights, is the only one who sees any problem in assuming that the defendant could have made the stab wound found. The one juror who had done contract work by the elevated subway was the only one in a position to question what one of the witnesses might or might not have heard. Another juror is so consumed by his personal prejudices that he is unable to accept the possibility that the Hispanic defendant is innocent. Yet another is unopen to reason because he has been physically attacked by his teenaged son, and, consequently, views each and every teenaged boy, including the defendant, as capable of patricide.

Will this jury come together to find a verdict of either "guilty" or "not guilty" or will it be a hung jury (a jury that cannot reach a unanimous decision, and must retire from the case without declaring a verdict)? Watching how this matter is resolved is a riveting study in the nature, and utimate beauty, of the trial by jury process. A must see intense drama!

Presented on March 26th, 27th, and 28th.

Directed by: Sue Harrison

"Twelve Angry Jurors" is a Cedar Springs Community Players production.