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12 Angry men
(1957) -
based on the play starring Henry Fonda, Jack Klugman
free
download
12 Angry men is one of the most important courtroom/jury room dramas ever to come out of the United states.
The question presented to
us in this great movie offerings is this: Is there justice in the level of discourse
that is being offered. Is the articulation on the issues in
fact valid or is it semantic like argument on feigns
of dubious validity.
If a case appears as it should: "open and shut" - is that reason enough
to start to discount it? Should
you decide that everything that could go the other way hypothetically, no matter how remote the possibility,
that
should be the order of the day of a particular brand of "more pure" justice?
Should the prejudices carried by members of the jury or
testifying witnesses be reason enough to negate and retard
their testimony? should they be required as jury members to vote the other side
instead? The OJ Simpson criminal trial
contained all of these elements in the minds of those who assembled not too long ago on a PBS panel
inquiry headed by
talk show host Mr. Charlie Rose. The ownership of property in and of itself should never be sufficient qualification to sit
on
a jury to decide the fate of members of the community. Instead, a sound grounding in values that are humanistically pure
and demonstrably
so, combined with sound reasoning skills and experience in the proper and right application of legal
principles that come from this sound
philosophical basis should rule, and be the requirement. So a panel of judges perhaps,
appointed on more than their connections within legal
circles as it presently is comprised, rather on an open contest in
which real votes for merit may be clearly exercised in the protection of all.
Otherwise, we could someday die for no other reason than a lack of restraint in the environment caused by a complete breakdown
in the
expectation of justice based on jury members that are nothing more than proxies for those that would inflict their own
brand of justice
instead. The OJ Simspon affair should raise just such alarm bells as the second trial rightly pointed out,
however it came too late to impose
penalties to fit the crime - financial constraints that were imposed subsequently on the
defendant could hardly be deemed sane enough for
anyone that was looking in at the situation in objective fashion unable to do
nothing but "shake their heads" in amazement that this could go
on without a public scream that should never end until
the righter outcome is seen through instead.
Michael Rizzo Chessman
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