Analysis of voice recognition and eyewitness testimonies The film 12 Angry Men is about a murder trial conducted in a courtroom. The judge gave the jury its final instruction telling them that a guilty verdict will result in a death sentence for the defendant, an 18-year-old boy who was accused of murdering his father using a knife! One juror had a personal connection with the case. He has not seen his son for more than two years. He claims that the young boy is guilty and that all young kids are criminals. The juror has bias towards the trial because he see his son in the young boy.
Out of the twelve jurors, eleven jurors voted for conviction. Another juror states that he has doubts about the case and hopes to give the boy a favorable decision. The young boy had a hard life living in the slum. A third juror claims that each of the juror states the reason behind his verdict in order to influence the juror. And the four juror states that just the ethnicity and class is all they need to persuade that the boy indeed killed his father. The juror believe that Hispanic boys from lower society are more likely to commit a crime like the one the young boy has committed.
Even though one of the juror sympathize the young boy his odd are still against him. Judging by the two prosecution witnesses throughout the film based on the young boy voice recognition is stronger than eyewitness testimony. The prosecution has shown two reliable eyewitnesses and what lead the boy to commit this crime. The first witness was an elderly women without glasses A witness claimed that the boy had many constant arguments with his father. An eyewitness identifies the knife similar to the one he had sold the boy before the killing of his father.
The juror who believed that the boy was guilty, however he had reasonable doubt when the juror recalled that a female eyewitness had impressions on the sides of her nose of the sort that was left by the glasses she was wearing. The jurors notice that the witness trick the court by removing her glasses before showing up to the court. They assume that she was more likely not wearing them in bed the night she stated the night she saw the crime. the article, “Eyewitness accounts false facts, false memories, and false identifications”. In this article researchers examine the reliability of an eyewitness.
After viewing a crime, participants heard a confederate provide an inaccurate description of the crime. Participants were placed in experimental conditions. Their ability to identify the criminal was assessed. Although participants felt confident in their ability to identify the perpetrator their ability to give accuracy of the perpetrator was not good. In general, wrongful information tends to lead to false identifications. (Beck, Rose, 2014 pp. 8-22)This relates to the old woman who lived across from the boy and his father who testified that she saw the boy murder his father through the windows of a passing train.
The old women did not give accurate information on the crime. The second witness was on an old man who heard the conflict leading up to the crime In an article by study by (Wallendavel, Surace, Parsons, and Brown, 1994) researchers examine 2 studies in presenting the effect of voice recognition on jurors. In experiment 1 participants listened to a tape recording. After 1 to 2 weeks, participants were unexpectedly asked to choose the sale person voice from the voice toned lineup. In experiment 2 participants were asked to read a brief review of a trial, describing a similar situation to experiment 1.
Overall the presence of an ear witness had a significant effect on a mock trial jurors’ verdict (1994, pp. 663-676). This relates to the old man who live beneath the boy and his father who had testified that he heard them fighting upstairs. During the trial jurors had second doubts whether to believe that the old men had actually heard the boy arguing with his father. He stated that he had heard the boy say that he was going to kill the father. He heard a body hit the ground and later saw the boy running. Jurors found that nobody could be that accurate based on his information he provided.
This case is seen as normative and informative conformity. Normative conformity is when a group of people is pressure due to a person wanting to fit in the group. An example of this is Asch line study. Informative conformity is when a person is not clear of the situation and compares their behavior with the group. An example of this is sheriff’s study. There was indication that conformity played a role in the jury’s decision. One of the jurors at first did not have a lot to say and seem indecisive as to whether or not the boy was guilty.
He definitely had some doubts, but went along with the rest of the jurors because of all the pressure. The eldest juror votes but later changes is mind suggesting he went along with the rest of the jurors. Compare to another juror who also went with the other jurors’ opinions of voting not guilty. When they found the boy guilty, he also voted guilty but when the jurors changes to not guilty his mind changes to not guilty as well. However, he changed his plea for superficial reason so he conformed more because of normative influence.
He did not believe the boy was guilty at all. In conclusion, the boy accused of murdering his father with a knife was found not guilty when all of the jurors finally made a final agreement. This film shows that one juror can affect the outcome of person where they will be found guilty or not guilty. Based on the articles ear witness was shown to be stronger than eyewitness. The old man testimony was affected by what he heard. The old man was shown to be the better witness Eyewitness is shown that is not accurate and not reliable oppose to voice recognition.
