Reginald Rose Quotes

“JUROR #11: If you want to vote not guilty, do it because you are convinced he is not guilty, not because you’ve had enough.”

“JUROR #8: This is somebody’s life. We can’t decide in five minutes.”

“JUROR #3: He’s an old man. You saw him. Half the time he was confused. How could he be positive about … anything?”

“JUROR #3: Now these are the facts. You can’t refute facts. The kid is guilty. I’m just as sentimental as the next fella. I know he’s only 18.”

“JUROR #8: There were eleven votes for guilty. It’s not easy to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first.”

“JUDGE: Murder in the first degree—premeditated homicide—is the most serious charge in our criminal courts.”

“JUROR: #10: You’re not gonna’ tell me we’re supposed to believe this kid, knowing what he is.”

“JUROR #9: No. He wouldn’t really lie. But perhaps he made himself believe he heard those words and recognized the boy’s face.”

“JUROR #8: You don’t really mean you’ll kill me, do you?”

“JUROR #10: I’ve lived among them all my life. You can’t believe a word they say. You know that. I mean, they’re born liars.”

“JUROR #3: I don’t care whether I’m alone or not! I have a right.”

“JUROR #11: You have sat here and voted guilty with everyone else because there are some baseball tickets burning a hole in your pocket.”

“JUROR #7: I honestly think the guy is guilty. Couldn’t change my mind if you talked for 100 years.”

“JUROR #7: Supposin’ we take five minutes? So what? Let’s take an hour. The ball game doesn’t start till eight o’clock.”

“JUDGE: It’s now your duty to sit down and try and separate the facts from the fancy.”

“JUROR #4: We’re not here to go into the reasons why slums are breeding grounds for criminals. They are. I know it.”

“JUROR #3: You come in here with your heart bleeding all over the floor about slum kids and injustice but you make up these wild stories, and you’ve got some soft-hearted old ladies listening to you.”

“JUROR #8: The old man—“I’m gonna kill you,” body hitting the floor a second later—would have had to hear the boy’s words with the el [train] roaring past his nose!”

“JUROR #8: Look, this boy’s been kicked around all his life. You know - living in a slum, his mother dead since he was nine. He spent a year and a half in an orphanage while his father served a jail term for forgery. That’s not a very good head start. He had a pretty terrible sixteen years. I think maybe we owe him a few words. That’s all.”

“JUDGE: One man is dead. The life of another is at stake. I urge you to deliberate honestly and thoughtfully. If this is a reasonable doubt - then you must bring me a verdict of ‘not guilty.‘”