This is one of the greatest movies of all time in its treatment of
the system of jury trials specifically in the U.S. where the contrast between
"preponderance of doubt" and "legal certainty "without a doubt" seems blurred when the
facts appear clear enough but are tainted by bias as was claimed to be
in the OJ Simpson murder trial of Nicole Simpson Brown - OJ was found
guilty in "Civil Court" of being responsible for her death while he got off
using a multi-million dollar team of lawyers in the Criminal trial where such
issues as whether the investigating officer had "racial items" in his past
became significant it would appear to where a member of the legal community
(an Irish woman speaking on the PBS syndicated "Charlie Rose" program
with guests including Jessie Jackson, an OJ sympathizer, said in closing
that members of opposing races may just seem not to be able to see evidence
in such cases through the same eyes "because we are becoming
more and more polarized).
In this case the character played by Henry Fonda tries to get a minority
member of the local community (a young chap seeming not much older than
a teen if at all) by placing doubts that seem far fetched and too much of a stretch
at first until it all seems too much for the jury to be going i the direction
of rendering a verdict in line with what seemed clearly an "open and
shut" case - now becoming derailed.
Thanks for seeding
Michael Rizzo Chessman
(moviesbyrizzo)
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.
