Giving Compass' Take:

· Alan Ehrenhalt touches on the topic of convictions and explains that there are complications and challenges with both unanimous and split jury decisions.

· Do juries always allow for an unbiased decision? What issues could come from requiring unanimous jury decisions? 

· Read about a jury that falsely convicted a man. 

The movie 12 Angry Men is a hard one to forget. It’s often judged to be one of the great courtroom dramas of all time, even though the action isn’t in a courtroom. It takes place in a cramped, sweltering jury chamber. Eleven of the 12 jurors are determined to send a teenage boy to the electric chair for stabbing his father to death. Only Henry Fonda, in the role of a stubborn and idealistic architect who sees flaws in the evidence, believes in the boy’s innocence. One by one, he convinces all 11 of his opponents to see it his way, including a bitter, irrational and hot-tempered Juror No. 3, who bizarrely links the defendant to his own estranged son. After ranting angrily against Fonda, this juror breaks down in tears, changes his vote and the boy goes free.

I’ve watched this movie more than once, and I react a little differently. I admire the architect’s courage and persistence, but I can’t help reflecting on the enormity of the task the legal process has forced on him. He can’t afford to lose a single vote. If Juror No. 3 had remained intransigent (which seems to me the more probable outcome in real life), the result would have been a hung jury, a new trial and very likely a conviction for murder. Does it really need to be unanimous? Is it possible that 10-2 or 11-1 might produce a larger number of fair results? I’m not saying it would; I’m just saying it’s not a totally crazy question.

As all of us know, the American legal system rarely asks this question. It is based virtually everywhere on the principle that no one should be convicted of a felony without a unanimous verdict. Only two states, Louisiana and Oregon, permit juries to render decisions with 10 or 11 votes out of 12.

Read the full article about jury convictions by Alan Ehrenhalt at Governing Magazine.