Bob: I resent all this valuable time spent over an issue that’s just… frivolous! Has anyone considered how much both of those rich people are paying all those lawyers? Why, there were times during this trial when there were four or five people sitting at the table on each side. How much do lawyers make? A couple hundred thousand a year? That’s practically a million bucks right there, because it probably took them minimum a year to prepare for this trial. Plus, there’s the judge, the reporter, the court clerk… we pay for them out of our taxes!

Maribel: And let us not forget the little people.

Bob: That’s right. We’re putting in a whole lot of sweat equity here. And what are we getting out of it?

Kevin: Why, Bob. We have the sweet satisfaction of being an integral part of justice in America.

They laugh.

Cliff: Let’s get back to our earlier discussion. We spent a lot of time discussing Mike Markov’s testimony. But whether he lied is not the issue. The issue is, does Lindy have a leg to stand on?

Diane: You know, I just can’t let this go by. Every time you refer to Mike, you call him Mike Markov. Every time you refer to her, you just call her Lindy. Has everyone else noticed that?

Bob: What difference does it make?

Diane: He sounds more important.

Cliff: I’m sorry, Diane. I really am. If I did that, it was unconscious.

Diane: The worst part of it is, I believe you. You are so unaware of the way you are stampeding this woman, and many of the women here right into dust.

Maribel: Will you please quit being my champion, Diane? I do not feel stampeded. You have such a nerve.

Kevin: Ladies, and Diane, I can see this is hard for you. You see a man who has tossed off a good woman. But where, oh, where is it written that he should pay for that for the rest of his life? They had a good run. Now it’s over.

Frank: She needs to forget about him and move on.

Bob: I say we help her along by giving her a kick in the rear end.

Kris: You know what? I’d like to vote again.

Diane: You’re giving up.

Kris: She’s got her rich friends to bail her out. I need to get back to my kids, and in terms of the universe, who cares whether she walks away rich or poor. She’ll toil along like the rest of us.

Diane: Is this the way it works? Somebody wants to go home, so we let Lindy Markov down?

Kris: Diane, I wish I was holier than thou. But I’m not. I’m just a person, trying to scrape by. And I do not have time for this.

Diane: You know what? Up to now I had a shred of faith in the jury system. People would ask me, shouldn’t a smart judge be the one to decide? Why waste everyone’s time? And I’d say, well, a jury of your peers is what stands between you and a bigot, or an ass-kissing politician, or a hard-line Gestapo judge, or…

Maribel: Well, that’s a terrible thing to say about Judge Milne…

Diane: God, this is just what I mean! I’m not talking about Judge Milne. I’m talking about a system that is as fair as it’s possible to have. There isn’t one better. And yet, here we are, letting these guys flirt and cajole and bully us into changing our position.

Maribel: Who’s flirting? You just insult people left and right!

Kris: I don’t let men bully me. I make up my own mind. You have a hard time accepting that another woman might not think the same way you do, Diane. But we all have life experience and brains, too.

And, put this in your pipe. He said he’d take care of her. He’s got such a guilty conscience, that’s obvious. So I believe he will. Like I said before, I’d rather she didn’t have to beg, but I can see which way the wind is blowing here, and I’m willing to go with the flow because however it turns out, she’s going to get something out of him, probably more than I’ll ever see in my life. And if she has to beg, well, welcome to the real world, baby.

Diane: Kris, please. You said at the beginning she deserved something. Give this some more thought.

Kris: Didn’t you hear me? I don’t have any more time to spend on this woman’s problems. I have my own. She’s not going to jail for a crime she didn’t commit or anything! This is just about money. This is not life or death.

Diane: I’m just asking you to take your time before deciding to change your vote.

Kris: Courtney’s not the only one who knows something about psychology. I know a few things about your type.

Diane: Huh?

Kris: Yeah, the mountain climber mentality. These are people who are happiest when they are in extreme situations that demand all their attention. They’re lousy at living everyday lives. That’s too boring. I think you’d like to drag this thing out. I think you’re enjoying this. You need to get a life.

Diane: That’s so unfair. I know how to make beds and do dishes, just like you!

Kris: Unlike Lindy. Can we please vote, now?

Cliff: It’s almost lunchtime.

Kris: This shouldn’t take long.

Frank: Chinese today?

Cliff: No, they had something else planned. But if we’re here tomorrow…

Kris: Christ, I hope not.

Cliff: Okay, let’s see where we stand.

Mrs. Lim: I would like to say something.

Cliff: And we all want to hear it. After we break for lunch. We’ve just got time for a vote.

They vote. It’s split down the middle, six to six.

›Click‹

26

›Click‹

Jury, Day Two, Afternoon:

Cliff: I want to start off this afternoon saying I’ve considered what Diane said earlier, about my referring to Mike more deferentially. That’s exactly the kind of thing that drives me nuts about other people, so it really hurt. So I really thought hard about ways I am influenced by own biases.

You know, I mentioned that I am recently separated. And I’ve searched my heart to see if that has had some impact on how strongly, since the beginning, I have favored Mike’s case. I have to be honest with you: it does. I took that idea, that the business was their child, very much to heart.

I have a child, and I foresee that my wife and I will be engaged in a bitter battle for custody. I see that child will be hurt, no matter what I do, but I can’t give her up. I will fight to the death for her. Just like Mike is fighting for his company. So I guess I understand. I see Lindy’s ownership, in a way, but it can’t be cut in half or it will be destroyed, you know, like in the Bible story where the real mother won’t have the child cut into two pieces, but the false mother will. Their company will be terribly harmed, maybe irreparably, if Lindy is given a big chunk of their assets. He’ll have to cut off an arm, and maybe a leg, and…

Diane: Oh, please! He might sell a bunch of buildings and machinery, if it comes to that. Since when does metal bleed?

Grace: Can you let him finish? I want to hear the rest.

Cliff: Thank you, Grace. Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is, it’s right to remove yourself from personal considerations, even if it seems impossible. So I went through my whole chain of reasoning one more time…

Diane: Let me guess. Mike still wins!

Cliff: Well, yes. There just is not one iota of evidence to support Lindy’s claim.

Diane: Figures.

Cliff: No written promises, no marriage certificate, no witnesses to direct promises. It just comes down to her word against his, as to an oral contract. How could Mike have made it any clearer that he did not wish to be married? I mean, they were together twenty years. Should he have written it in blood?

No, on the contrary, what I see is that she signed her name to an agreement that said they should separate their property. There were innuendoes made by Lindy’s lawyers that he forced her to do that, using some nasty psychological pressure, but you know, he strikes me as a pretty straightforward person. What she saw was exactly what she got.