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A character is holding out for innocence on a jury. Sometimes another main character is on the jury, too, and tries to change his mind. Occasionally subverted when it turns out the defendant is actually guilty. A rather common plot for [[Sit ComSitcom|Sit Coms]].
 
This is a common template for a [[Courtroom Episode]].
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* A ''[[Batman (Comic Book)|Batman]]'' comic once had Bruce Wayne selected to sit on the jury of a man whom he, as Batman, had arrested attempting to kidnap a wealthy couple's baby. As the rest of the jury were taken in by the defendant's innocent act, he had to convince them that the defendant was actually ''guilty''. Contained an amusing moment where Bruce, honestly answering a jury selection question about whether he was fit to sit on the jury, [[Sarcastic Confession|confessed]] that he was prejudiced about the case because he was actually Batman - and after everyone stopped laughing, the judge told him to stop jerking around and take things seriously.
* One of the ''[[City of Heroes]]'' comics (the Blue King run, not the Top Cow run) throws superpowers into this mix, with Apex appointed to the superpowered jury, when a superhero stands accused of second-degree murder - and naturally, he has to face a jury of his peers. Needless to say, the case does NOT go smoothly...
 
== [[Film]] ==
* The [[Trope Codifier]] is ''[[Twelve12 Angry Men]]''. A [[Rogue Juror]] is the sole holdout on a case which appears to indicate fairly straightforwardly that the accused is definitely a murderer. However, as the jury is forced to analyze the evidence in detail, they slowly discover that almost all of it is flawed in some way. Worth noting that, unlike some other examples, the Rogue Juror isn't 100% convinced of the accused's innocence at first - he just wants to make sure they've done their job properly, as the accused is facing a mandatory death sentence.
** Interestingly, while #8 is trying to get everyone else to do their job properly, he is not. Conducting your own investigation and bringing a weapon into the jury room are both serious juror misconduct. This leads to a bit of [[Values Dissonance]] between lay people and legal professionals watching the same film / play.
* ''[[Jury Duty]]'' is pretty much the same thing, played for laughs.
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* This happens offscreen at the beginning of the [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] novel ''Strong Poison''; Lord Peter's associate Miss Climpson is the jury holdout in the murder trial of Harriet Vane. This leads to a hung jury and a retrial, allowing Peter--[[Love At First Sight|who has fallen instantly in love with Harriet]]--time to find the evidence to clear her.
* Done in a ''[[City of Heroes]]'' novel.
* Pavel Young's court martial in the ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' novel ''Field of Dishonor'' has White Haven (the senior admiral of the jury) accuse ''half the jury'' of acting like this for political reasons, at which point the lowest ranking officer there turns around and accuses him right back. Eventually, one of the dissenting admirals negotiates a political compromise and agrees to vote with White Haven (breaking the deadlock 4-2), provided the death penalty charges are dropped, resulting in Young's dishonorable discharge and setting the stage for the second half of the book.. The other two never change their votes.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Little House Onon the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On the Prairie]]'': In "Barn Burner," a black man named Joe Kagan (Moses Gunn, in a rerurring role) is the lone holdout on a jury that has voted to convict racist farmer Judd Larabee for burning down Jonathan Garvey's barn. Ironically, Larabee had objected to forming a cooperative specifically because Kagan -- the lone black farmer in the Walnut Grove area -- would also get to enjoy the co-op's benefits, and Larabee was fingered as the suspect after Garvey confronted Larabee at his home. Kagan's instincts prove right: Andy Garvey, who had been assaulted by Larabee on the night of the barn fire, had accidentally caused the fire after leaving a burning lantern hang on a hook just outside the barn door, and the wind swept the flames into the dry tinderwood. Larabee is acquitted of barn burning (a crime that was punishable by death) ... and he shows his "gratitude" by going on a tirade about blacks. By this point, everyone is tired of his rants, and he is left to die a lonely, bitter man.
* On ''[[The Odd Couple]]'' Felix and Oscar tell the Pigeon sisters how they met during jury duty. Though the defendant was innocent, he was, after the trial, driven to actually commit the violent assault he had been falsely accused of after being trapped in an elevator with Felix. Interestingly, Jack Klugman was a juror in the original Henry Fonda movie.
* In ''[[The Dead Zone]]'', Johnny becomes a rogue juror because he has a psychic vision of the accused being shanked in prison. Even with his powers, he's much like the original [[Twelve12 Angry Men|Juror No. 8]] in that he doesn't know for sure the accused is innocent until further examination of the evidence.
* ''[[Monk]]'' in the episode "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty". {{spoiler|And done deliberately by another juror--she was only there to prolong the trial until she could help another defendant escape, so she looked over the shoulder of the juror next to her and voted the opposite way. As it happened, the person next to her was Monk, the only "not guilty" vote, so she ended up voting the same way as the other ten jurors.}}
* One episode of ''[[CSI]]'' has the holdout on a jury found dead. The suspicion is that he was murdered to end the deadlock, when in truth {{spoiler|he was stung by a bee that had flown into the jury room through an open window and died from a massive allergic reaction.}}
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* ''[[MacGyver]]'' used this trope in one episode. Mac goes so far as to break sequester and sneak out to the crime scene to gather evidence himself. Of course, in the real world, that would get you a sentence for contempt of court and the trial itself would be declared a mistrial, but real life never gets in the way of TV justice.
* On one episode of ''[[Quincy]]'', the titular character found himself on a jury in an apparently open and shut murder case and proceeded to annoy everyone by continually asking questions about the evidence (and deducing the real killer, of course).
** This also doubles as an [[Actor Allusion]] - Jack Klugman (Quincy) starred as Juror #5 in the 1957 movie version of [[Twelve12 Angry Men]] (in fact, out of the 12 actors in that movie, Klugman is the last who still lives).
* Subverted in ''[[3rd Rock Fromfrom the Sun]]'' ("11 Angry Men and a Dick"), where Dick meets the guy briefly in the courthouse lobby and likes the guy before finding out he's the defendant in the case he's serving on. It's obvious he's guilty, but Dick goes out of his way to invent [[Insane Troll Logic|completely random]] reasons he might be innocent.
{{quote| "Well, Foster SAID he didn't do it. Are you calling him--AND his attorney--a liar?!"}}
* Also inverted in an episode of ''[[Seventh7th Heaven]]'', in which one of the main characters of the show persuades a reluctant jury to accept the testimony of the police and find the defendant guilty.
* Edith did it in ''[[All in The Family]]'', even reusing an argument from the film: when one racist juror says "those people" are born liars, Edith asks why she believes a key prosecution witness who is the same race as the defendant, to big applause from the audience.
* In ''[[Family Matters]]'', Steve and Carl wind up on the same jury. Steve believes the defendant to be innocent; Carl and the other jurors are sure the guy is guilty, as his face shows up clearly in security camera footage. Steve proceeds to prove his case by {{spoiler|taking a blow-up of a frame of footage in which the real criminal's face is seen in a reflection; the defendant's face had been edited in, but he hadn't reckoned on someone checking that closely.}}
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* On ''[[Happy Days]]'', Fonzie uses his knowledge of motorcycles to prove the defendant's innocence to Howard and the other jurors.
** Like the ''All in the Family'' example above, this episode has racism as a central point of the plot. At the end, the grateful defendant who was found not guilty (a black man) hugs the racist jurist when he thanks him for serving on the jury.
* Done in ''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'', after viciously calling for the conviction of a teenage thief, Lois realizes that she was projecting her feelings about her eldest son on the defendant and resigns, but not until she's convinced everyone else and wasted an insane amount of time. It's made worse by the fact that everybody had already agreed on guilty to get out early, she just forced them into a deadlock so that they had to think about it with due respect.
* An episode of ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' had Phoebe on a jury receive a vision of someone other than the defendant committing the crime. After unsuccessfully attempting to convince them by normal means, she proceeds to {{spoiler|use magic to summon the victim, and then memory dust to make them forget it}}.
* Played fairly straight in ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'' when Aunt Bea is a holdout for a not guilty verdict, but is completely inarticulate about why. She merely keeps insisting that she doesn't think the accused is guilty, and winds up hanging the jury. As the court is preparing for another trial, Sheriff Taylor discovers that the real perpetrator was watching the trial from the gallery, and arrests him.
* ''[[The Single Guy]]'' used actual clips from the movie at one point.
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* Done on ''[[The Good Wife]]'' where a trial was hung due to one crazy cat lady juror deciding the defendant was innocent and refusing to vote otherwise.
** In the episode 'Blue Ribbon Panel', protagonist Alicia Florrick becomes this when she suspects that police are covering up what really happened in a shooting. She wins over other members of the panel... only for the chain of evidence to lead back to her husband, the State's Attorney, forcing her to recuse herself.
* In ''[[Early Edition (TV)|Early Edition]]'' Gary tries to avoid getting on a jury because of his ability to get tommorrow's newspaper however he ends up on the jury anyway. He finds out that the man everyone believes is guilty has been framed (and hangs himself after the guilty verdict) and tries to prove his innocence to everyone else's annoyance.
* In one episode of ''[[Murder She Wrote|Murder, She Wrote]]'', Jessica is forewoman in a murder trial. Her fellow jurors are generally sure that the defendant is guilty, while Jessica asks them to take some time to review the facts. In a somewhat subversion, {{spoiler|the jury acquits, because while the defendant did commit murder (disguised as an accident), he is not guilty of ''the murder he's on trial for,'' and convicting would've allowed the real killer to go free.}}
* ''[[Newhart]]'' took a turn with this plot too.
* On ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'', Rob is the lone holdout in the trial of an attractive woman. Naturally, Laura isn't happy when she hears about this.
* On ''[[Crossing Jordan]]'', the rogue juror is Jordan (in quite possibly the most unrealistic trial of this type ever; just for starters, Jordan is already acquainted with the prosecutor). No one is surprised.
* In the TV movie We The Jury, it is actually an inversion, as one juror is convinced that the defendant is guilty and convinces the other jurors of this.
* Was in fact the title of an episode of ''[[HancocksHancock's Half Hour]]'' in which both Tony Hancock and Sid James were on the jury.
** And a remake starring Paul Merton.
* On the episode "Samson, He Denied Her" of ''[[The Nanny]]'', Fran and C.C. are called for jury duty, and Maxwell hopes it'll take Fran's mind off the fact that he had recently told her he loved her and then took it back. In the trial, the defendant is a housekeeper who is accused of assaulting her boss with a pair of scissors to chop off all his hair, but the trial also reveals that she did it because her boss told her she loved her and then took it back. This prompts Fran to immediately sympathize with the defendant and insist she's not guilty, even after the defendant blurted out a confession on the witness stand. Fran proceeds to drive the other jurors crazy because she refuses to vote guilty.
* One episode of the live-action [[Batman]] show had Batman for some unexplained reason (He might know a lot about the law, but he never took the bar exam, nor does he work for the D.A.'s office) acting as the prosecutor in a trial against Joker and Catwoman. The whole jury voted innocent despite the evidence, at which point Robin realized that Joker's lawyer had managed to get the entire jury filled with ex-henchmen of the two criminals. Batman and Robin beat up the crooks, and the trial gets redone. This ignores the fact that both sides of a judicial case are supposed to be screening the jury to be ensure that the jurors aren't prejudiced ''before'' the trial even begins, and a provable close association with the defendants is an automatic disqualification.
* Inverted in the B-plot of the two-part ''[[Cheers]]'' episode "Never Love a Goalie", in which Diane serves on a jury in an assault case filed by a woman against her husband, and Diane is the only one convinced of the defendant's guilt, to the exasperation of the other jurors. Ultimately, the woman drops the charges and the deliberations are ended prematurely, but when the woman and her husband visit Cheers at the end of the episode, Diane manages to provoke the husband into threatening his wife, thereby demonstrating his guilt in front of witnesses.
* Subverted in an episode of the Marlo Thomas-starring sitcom ''That Girl'' (entitled "[[Twelve12 Angry Men|Eleven Angry Men]] and That Girl", though not all of the other jurors are male), in which Thomas' character, Ann Marie, is the lone member of a jury convinced that a man accused of striking his wife with an ashtray is innocent. When a male juror makes a pass at her and she slaps him, she realises that the wife's injuries are on the wrong side of her face for a strike by her right-handed husband. The subversion comes when the husband is acquitted and begins arguing with his wife anew... and grabs a nearby ashtray and hits her across the face ''backhanded'', thereby explaining the anomaly that had persuaded Ann, and the other jurors, to acquit him.
* In ''[[Shameless]]'', Frank Gallagher becomes one when he discovers he can claim extra benefits as long as he is on jury service. From that point onward, he tries to drag the deliberation for as long as possible, continually reversing his opinion whenver he cleverly convinces everyone to see things his way.
* Played with in ''[[Castle]]'', in a case where a juror is poisoned; he's killed before deliberations start, but it's revealed that he managed to get himself placed on the jury in the first place in order so that he could act as one of these. {{spoiler|Specifically, he knows that the defendant didn't commit the crime because his brother was with the person who did at the time, but while he doesn't want to throw his brother to the wolves he can't in good conscience let an innocent man go to jail for it.}}
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'''Lydia, smirking:''' You don't REALLY mean you ''spit'' on me, do you? }}
* In ''[[The Flintstones]]'', Fred takes up this role in one episode, defending the [[Obviously Evil]] Mangler, and coming up with ridiculous excuses for him until finally giving up. Guess who the Mangler goes after once he escapes.
* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] on ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]].'' [[Jerkass|Roger]] is on trial and virtually all the evidence points to him being guilty, but he manages to endear himself to everybody except Stan, who's on the jury. Everybody else wants to let him off just because they like him, but Stan forces them to keep reviewing the evidence until they vote guilty just to get him to stop. (They break down crying during the conviction.)
 
== Other ==
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