TWELVE ANGRY MEN quote bank

STAGE DIRECTIONS:

- large, drab, bare room in need of painting

- Large scarred table in the center
- At night the room is lit by fluorescent lighting
- climbs on bench and tries the fan
- The 8th juror stands along for a few moments. We know that this is a problem that has been
tormenting him (suppose the kid really did knife his father.)
- He does not know and never will
- (8th juror) snatches up the pad, tears off the top sheet, crumples it and drops it in the
wastebasket
- There is an awkward silence
- The 8th juror puts his hand on the 9th jurors shoulder
- It has grown considerably darker in the room and its oppressively still. Everyone waits for
the storm. And suddenly it comes.
- There is a flickering of harsh white light
- Rain continues throughout the remainder of the play
- The 8th juror smiles briefly
- 10th juror bursts into the washroom, strides out of the washroom (and says well isn't this'd
the goddamnesdest thing you ever saw... It's a joke.)
- 8th juror does not look up ( when 10th juror " crosses angrily away", when 8th says you're
the one who says .......nickel for a psychiatrists testimony )
- There is a pause. No one moves for a moment, and then the 8th juror rises and crosses to
the 3rd. They stand looking at each other.
- (3rd) looks squarely at him, and squats to make himself shorter. The 3rd juror suddenly stabs
downward, hard. The 8th juror does not move. The 3rd juror smiles.
- Slowly, almost embarrassed , he raises his own hand (foreman)
- 4th and 10th jurors stare at each other. Finally the 10 th juror turns away, crosses to a chair and
sits with his back to the others.

JUDGE:

- My final instruction to you

- premeditated homicide – is the most serious charge tried in our criminal court
- your duty to … separate the facts from the fancy
- urge you to deliberate honestly and thoughtfully
- If there is reasonable doubt – then you must bring me a verdict of not guilty
- No reasonable doubt, then you must, in good conscience, find the accused guilty
-

OTHER

- I don’t envy your job

- faced with a grave responsibility
 - move awkwardly about the room
- no conversation for a few moments
- you’d think they’d at least air condition this place
- Been kicked around all his life, not a very good head start. He’s had a pretty terrible sixteen
years.
- Elevated el train. The lights were out
- One of “them”
- Father hit the boy twice. They saw the boy walk angrily out of the house.
- Violence is practically a normal state of affairs for him

1st

- Not going to have any rules

- Keep this thing organized, run the show
- He picked the ..voice, blindfolded
- Massages the spot on his nose where they should be
- The boy had strong homicidal tendencies. Capable of committing murder.

2nd

- Obvious from the word go

- Somebody saw him do it
- 10 seconds approximately
- It's... Awkward to stab down into the chest of someone who's more than a half foot taller
than you are. 

3rd

- takes out some notes and studies them

- lawyers can talk, and talk, and talk, even when the case is as obvious as this one
- so much talk about nothing
- better off if we took these tough kids and slapped ‘em down before they make trouble
- The man’s a dangerous killer
- One of those open and shut things
- No personal feelings about this
- The kid shout out “I’m going to kill you”
- Looked out and saw the kid running
- Got to pay for what he did
- Kids… nowadays. Angry! Hostile! Can’t do a damn thing with them
- I was so ashamed I almost threw up
- Rotten kid
- I’m excitable
- Get nasty
- That’s enough for me
- Nobody can be that accurate
 - Nothing but words. I want to stop wasting time
- Sanctimonious talk about slum kids and injustice.
- You bet I’d like to pull the switch. Lunges wildly at the 8 th juror
- You can throw out all the other evidence
- There’s a long pause.
- The guy was baiting me...doesn't prove anything
- I'm a very excitable person y’know
- Public avenger and a sadist. I'm a certain type of person
- You took an oath, you can't just quit. It's dishonest
- A lot of mumbo jumbo

4th

- begins to read a newspaper

- entire story was flimsy
- two slaps too many
- he’s a product of a filthy neighbourhood and a broken home
- Slums are breeding grounds for criminals
- Unusual carved handle. Only one of its kind
- Returned home.. to find his father dead and himself arrested.
- Charming and imaginative little fable the boy invented.
- Not very probable
- If you haven’t got anything to add besides jokes, I suggest you listen
- Her bed was next to the window – and she could look out while lying and see directly into
the boy’s window. She got a good look at the boy in the act of stabbing.
- Removes his spectacles and polishes them
- Clasps his fingers over the marks left by the spectacles on the side of his nose…rubs these
areas
- I didn’t think about it before.
- No one wears eyeglasses to bed
- Just by logic

5th

- Lives in a slum all my life

- He closes the knife and holds it gingerly
- I hate these things. I grew up with them.
- Seen, "too many of them" the knives. 
- In order to stab downward, you would have to change your grip. You don't use it... That way
- We're gonna have a storm
- You're (7th) calling him arrogant (11th) because he wasn't born here

6th

- nods and gazes out of the window

- convinced from the first day
- not a doubt in the whole world.
 - Nobody goes out and kills someone without a motive, not unless he’s just plain nuts.
- I …finished painting an apartment that overlooked the el line
- A guy who talks like that to an old man oughta really get stepped on. Have some respect.
- If you sat stuff like that to him again – I’m gonna lay you out
- Ah, shut up!
- That's not funny (the stabbing reenactment)

7th

- Goddamn waste of time

- The odds are a million to one (for someone to stab the father with the same knife)
- (Scattered laughter)
- Another chap flips his goddamn wig
- Facts are staring you right in the face (are wrong (says 8 th))
- All this yakking getting us nowhere so I'm going to break it up here. I'm changing my vote

8th

- Looking out the window

- Nods, doesn’t answer. Does not hear the foreman
- Gazes out of the window, continues to stare out of the window
- Just want to talk
- Not easy for me to …send a boy off to die without talking …first
- Suppose we’re wrong
- The burden of proof is on the prosecution. The defendant doesn’t have to open his mouth.
That’s in the constitution.
- Reaches into his pocket… flicks open the blade... leans forward and sticks the knife into the
table. Little pawnshop three blocks from his house. It cost six dollars
- I broke the law
- Peculiar feeling about this trial. Nothing is that positive
- Possible for a lawyer to be just plain stupid
- People make mistakes
- Didn’t say “punched”. He said “hit”. There’s a difference between a slap and a punch.
- Proposition to make, I’ll abstain. We’ll take a guilty verdict in to the judge right now.
- (stands watching the others)
- Compulsive gambler and a pretty consistent loser. He was tough, cruel, primitive.
- By a bookmarker. By a man he’d beaten up. By a woman he’d picked up
- It’s not easy to identify a voice, especially a shouting voice.
- Just an ambition district attorney putting on a show. It doesn’t sound right to me
- This isn’t a game
- Almost unbearable. You can’t hear yourself think
- If he heard anything, he still couldn’t have identified the voice with the el roaring by.
- He’s much too bright for that
- No one can really know, but we have reasonable doubt, and this is a safeguard that has
enormous value in our system.
 - It’s hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. Prejudice obscures the truth
- It’s the kind of case that brings him nothing. No money. No glory. Not even much chance of
winning.
- I want to try this thing (the 8th juror paces, counting his steps silently) 10 th says: this is
absolutely insane.
- If you think I should go faster, I will. (forty two seconds exactly.)
- I’m sorry for you
- You don’t really mean you’ll kill me
- No jury can declare a man guilty unless it’s sure
- She only saw a blur. The woman’s eyesight is in question now
- It’s not your boy. He’s somebody else’s
- Putting yourself in the boys place... Remember details after an upsetting experience such as
being struck in the face by your father
- Under great emotional stress
- I'd like to ask you (4th) a personal question
- The boy is pretty handy with a knife
9th

- Not easy to stand alone against the ridicule of others

- Gambled for support, I gave it to him
- Respect his motives
- I want to hear more
- Attention maybe
- He walked slowly. Trying to hide it because he was ashamed. I think I know him better than
anyone here.
- Quiet, frightened, insignificant old man who has been nothing all his life.
- Make himself believe that he’d heard those word
- The 9th juror lowers his head, embarrassed.
- You’re a sick man (to 10th)
- The woman was about forty-five… She made a tremendous effort to look thirty five. Heavy
make-up. Dyed hair. No eyeglasses.
- The facts are supposed to determine the case
- It indicates no one can prove he wasn't (at the movies) 10th: I suppose that proves the kid
was at the movies
- Being accused of murder isn't necessarily supposed to give him an infallible memory

10th

- Kids run wild up there

- Serves ‘em right
- Born liars
- Woman across the street …actually saw the killing
- Biggest load of crap
- Common ignorant slob. He don’t even speak good English.
- He’s twisting the facts
- Facts are being changed around
- Maybe what we need is a little yelling.
 - Picky little points
- They are different. They think different. They act differect.
- They don’t care. Family don’t mean anything to them. They breed like animals. These people
are multiplying
- They’re violent, they’re vicious, they’re ignorant and they will cut us up.
- Cave your head in (to 2nd)
- Suddenly like it’s some kind of mission
- Break my brains over scum like that
- Ready to walk into court right now and declare a hung jury
- Guilty. Period.
- Psycho-what-ever-you-call-it-stuff. I wouldn't give a nickel for a psychiatrist’s testimony.

11th

- Facts may be colored by the personalities of the people who present them
- I don’t believe I have to be loyal to one side or the other.
- No right to play like this with a man’s life. This is a terrible and ugly thing to do. Don’t you
care? (to 7th)

12th

- Lucky to get a murder case

- Burglary or… assault … can be the dullest
- Very impressed. The way he hammered home his points.
- The whole thing’s unimportant
- There’s so much evidence to sift
- Bouncing backward and forward like a tennis ball

The defendant

 16 year old
 Charged with 1st degree murder
 Needs jury to be unanimously voting guilty for the sentence of electric chair
 Believed to have stabbed father 4 inches into chest “He knifed his own father. Four inches
into the chest” page 11
 Has been kicked around his whole life. Page 13
 Lived in a slum, his mother was dead when he was 9, spent year in orphanage whilst his
father was in jail for forgery.
 The psychiatrist definitely stated that the boy had strong homicidal tendencies. Page 58

Rebuttal: just because you can commit a murder doesn’t necessarily mean you will. Page 59.

 Father beat him since he was 5. He was in children’s court when he was 10 for throwing
rocks at his teacher. In reform school when he was 14. Has stolen a car, arrested for
mugging, picked up twice for trying to slash another teen with a knife. Apparently quick with
knives. Page 17
 Lawyer for the boy was court-appointed thus it could mean he didn’t want the case. Page
38.
THE CASE

The old man living on the 2nd floor heard loud noises above at 12:10am. Said it sounded like a fight
and the kid shout “I’m gonna kill you”. A second later heard a body fall and ran to the door of the
apartment in 15 seconds to see the kid running down the stairs of the house. He then called the
police who saw the body. Page 16

 Rebuttal: Could possibly identify the voice wrong from the apartment downstairs. If the
woman saw the murder while the train past, the sound of the train would’ve washed out the
sound of the body falling and the shouting “I’m going to kill you” let alone identify it. Old
man may’ve gained attention from giving a testimony. Page 35&36.
 Many people also say “I’m going to kill you” without literally meaning it. Page 37.
 He is an old man with a limp therefore it should take around 42 seconds. Page 44-37.

Death time was around midnight

The boy claimed to had gone to see a movie during the time of the killing yet an hour later, when
questioned, could not remember what films he saw or who played in them.

 Rebuttal: being interrogated by police and being in shock of the scene at hand would make it
hard for the boy to remember the movie he saw.

No one saw the boy going in or out the theatre

Woman across the street claimed to see killing. She can’t sleep in the heat, looks out her window at
midnight and sees the stabbing occur through the passing of an empty train. Page 15

 Rebuttal: The woman did not have her glasses on, she was also watching the “stabbing”
through a passing of a very loud train. She only saw the killing through the window of the
last two cars and remember most insignificant details. The train takes 10 seconds to pass.
She also wore glasses which would mean she wouldn’t have had enough time to put on the
glasses AND witness the murder.

Switch knife that had been used had an unusual and unique carving on the handle.

Store keeper identified the knife in court and said it is “the only one of its kind” page 21.

Boy bought knife as a present for a friend after he broke his knife. Page 24.

The boy 8:45pm the boy ran into 3 friends in front of a diner and talked to them for an hour. They
saw the knife and each of them identified the weapon

The boy leaves at 9:45 and arrives home at 10pm

The boy claims that he stayed home until 11:30 and then went to the movies. He then came home at
about 3:15am and found himself arrested for the death of his father. No one saw him leave at 11:30
am though. No one at the theatres identified him. He could not remember the name of the movie.

 Rebuttal: 8th juror revealed that he had the same knife with the carvings alike to the murder
weapon. Why would the boy show off his knife if he planned to commit a murder with it
hours later? Page 24
  If the boy killed his father, why would he come back. Page 39.

If the boy didn’t kill the father, who else would’ve had the motive to do so?

 Rebuttal: The father was a compulsive gambler and a consistent loser. Spent time in bars,
involved in fistfights. Has not bad background thus many people involved may have a motive
to kill him. Page 31&48

The boy is shorter than the father but the knife was in on a downwards angle. The boy was familiar
with knives thus would know that it was supposed to be stabbed underarm. Page 60&61.

Motive proposed by 6th juror: There was an argument between the two at around 8pm. The father
hit the boy twice and the boy walked angrily out of the house.

 Rebuttal: The boy has been hit so many times in his life that violence is practically a normal
state of affrairs for him. I can’t see two slaps in the face provoking him into committing
murder. Page 17