Play by Reginald Rose Teaching Activities by Rivka Lewenstein

SAMPLE PAGE FROM 
TWELVE ANGRY MEN
© 2011. A.E.L. Publications

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Twelve Angry Men
be. If they cannot come to a 
unanimous
1
decision, they are called a 
hung jury
,
2
and if 
the prosecution wants to have a new 
trial
,
3
the process must begin all over again with 
new jurors. However, the judge will usually not allow a hung jury unless the jurors 
have spent a long time trying to come to an agreement — sometimes even weeks, if 
necessary.
The jury system is supposed to be the most impartial way to conduct a trial, because 
instead of one person (a judge) deciding on a verdict by him- or herself, twelve “regular” 
people must all agree on a verdict together. However, there are several known problems 
with this system. They include the following:
1. People with high-paying jobs don’t like to waste their time sitting on a jury 
(especially since there is no way to know how long it will take), so they will often 
ignore letters telling them to come to the courthouse for jury duty. In addition, 
lawyers for the defense often prefer to choose less-educated people to sit on a 
jury. As a result, less-educated people are more likely to sit on a jury than highly-
educated ones.
2. Many jurors have preconceived ideas which affect the decision they make. 
3. Very few jurors have any real knowledge of the law.
4. People want to finish their jury duty as quickly as possible, so that they can go back 
to work and to leading a normal life.
► 
In the United States, defendants are given a choice of having their case 
heard by a judge or by a jury. Do you think that that is preferable to the 
Israeli justice system which has no juries? Why or why not? 
1. unanimous = agreed upon by everyone
2. a hung jury = when the twelve jurors cannot agree on one final verdict
3. (a) trial = the process which takes place in court in which information is given to help 
decide whether someone is guilty or not