12 Angry Men Essay 12-1-09

Melissa Johnson

Honors English/E

November 30, 2009

12 Angry Men Essay

Guilty As Charged

It is up to you, the jury, to keep this killer off the streets, away from you and away from your families. It is imperative that you do not see this boy as a young, confused boy who deserves to experience life. You must see him as a troubled, boy who killed his father and is more than capable of killing more innocent human beings. I ask you now to think about the oath you took the day you walked in this courtroom. The words of that oath do not only apply to the people around us, but to our country and to upholding its dignity. You owe it to the people of the United States of America to make your decision based on the cold, hard facts.

Now, I am going to share with you some background information about this boy. His whole life he has been surrounded by violence. It has been proven in the past, time after time, that children who grow up in less than desirable circumstances are the ones that tend to lash out in their teen years. Although it is believed the reason this young boy killed his father is because he was done taking his fathers beatings. Is death really a fair way to stop beatings? Please ask yourself this, would killing someone be the first thing that comes to your mind after an argument? Most would answer no, which proves that we must keep those who would answer yes somewhere that they will not cause danger to others. By letting this boy roam free, we are endangering other citizens.

In this case, we are given two pieces of visual evidence from different witnesses. One being from the old man who lives downstairs, and one being from a woman who lives across the el train tracks from them. The old man claims to have heard the father and the young boy fighting, and clearly heard the words “I’m going to kill you!” come from the boy’s mouth. Right after that, he heard a body hit the floor and quickly made it to his door, only to see the young boy running down the stairs and out of the building. If this is not evidence enough, the woman across the way claims to have actually seen the killing with her own two eyes. If you still have an ounce of reasonable doubt in your mind, please consider these questions, first: why would these two people go to the trouble of making up stories, only to put themselves through this tedious court process? And second: what do they have to gain from this? The answer is: nothing.

Along with these two pieces of visual evidence, we also have one piece of very tangible evidence: the knife. Do any of you honestly think that there could be such a great coincidence that the knife found at the crime scene is the same kind the bou bought earlier that day? The man who sold the knife to him testified, in front of all of us, that it was the exact knife he sold to the young boy, and it was the only one of its kind. If that is not evidence enough, his shaky alibi should tip your scare to the boy being guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He claimed to be at the cinema, but when asked about the movie he saw, he couldn’t even give any general facts. On top of that, no one who was at the theater that night could identify him. When you pay to go see a movie, do you not even pay enough attention to remember the genre or title of the film? I think we can all agree in saying that we do.

If you let this boy loose on the conclusion of him being not guilty, it will constantly be on your conscience. To be honest, I believe it should be there because you will be unleashing a killer into our streets. By doing so, you are opening countless more opportunities for him to take the lives of others. No one is asking you to kill this boy; we are asking you to come to an honest and well thought out verdict. We are simply asking whether he is guilty of killing his father or not and the answer is yes.

This boy is like a piñata. The more he is beat and tossed around, the closer he gets to his breaking point. This crime may have only been the whack that caused the first pieces of candy to fall. If you let him loose on the conclusion of not guilty, it is inevitable that the final break will come and he will wreak havoc on countless innocent people. When he goes on to commit more crimes, it will remain on your conscience until the day he receives the punishment he deserves. If you all do your jobs and come to an honest and well thought out verdict, that punishment will come sooner rather than later. No one is asking you to kill this boy; we are simply asking you to uphold the duty you owe to the United States of America by protecting those around you and taking a murderer off the streets.