The Tortoise and the Hare Entry No. 7

12 Angry Men
By Reginald Rose

I watched the film adaptation of this when I was in high school. Many years later, as a bookseller, I was delighted at the chance of being able to purchase the play it is based on. It is published by Penguin as part of its Penguin Classics.

The book made me think about our justice system. Could we survive with a jury system? Random Filipinos are generally too hard-up to be shielded from outside influences that we try to keep a judge exempt from. But what if our decisions as ordinary citizens bore that much consequence – to send a man to the chair? I have read a lot of cases beset by questions of law, but to read one beset by questions of fact … When does a piece of information become a fact? Who deems it as so? Does it become one by a sufficient number regarding it as so? When is it sufficiently tried to be regarded as one?

Reading the play, I wish I could see the faces of the jurors. The mental picture of them would have been helpful to quickly categorise the characters of the jurors and remind myself of their biases and stances. It would have been interesting to figure out beforehand how they would vote. Instead, I didn’t have that with just this script and just went along with how they as a group broke down a piece of evidence.

My verdict: a short, riveting read. Read in one sitting. A hare read. Enjoyable.

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