Episode 50: Juror #2 (2024) (Guest: Frank Wohl)

Episode 50: Juror #2 (2024) (Guest: Frank Wohl)

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Description

This episode examines Juror #2, Clint Eastwood’s most recent—and perhaps final—film. Juror #2 centers around the trial of a man accused of murdering his girlfriend after a fight at a bar, leaving her in a ditch by the side of a road. The twist comes early: Justin Kemp a/k/a Juror #2 (played by Nicholas Hoult) soon realizes that the wrong man is on trial—as he hears the evidence, Kemp figures out that he, and not the defendant, killed the victim. Kemp realizes that he accidentally hit the defendant’s girlfriend with his car while she was walking along the side of a road on a dark and rainy night—thinking at the time, that he had hit a deer. Kemp, otherwise portrayed as a good man—a loving husband with a baby on the way—must navigate the moral dilemma as he serves on a jury that seems prepared to condemn an innocent man. Eastwood’s first courtroom drama in a long and legendary career, Juror #2 explores themes of justice, morality, and the imperfections of the legal system.

Guest: Frank Wohl

A founding partner of Lankler, Siffert & Wohl, Frank Wohl has appeared as prosecutor or defense counsel in numerous criminal trials and appeals and as plaintiff or defense counsel in civil cases.  Over his distinguished career, Frank has represented a wide of range of individuals and institutions. He has also devoted a substantial portion of his practice to attorney ethics matters, defending lawyers and law firms, appearing as an expert witness, and serving on city, state, and federal ethics committees. Frank previously served in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he was appointed Assistant Chief of the Criminal Division and subsequently Chief of the Civil Division. Frank also previously  served as the President of the Federal Bar Council.

Timestamps:

0:00      Introduction

2:46       A flawed process

7:05       The ex-police detective on the jury and the motion for a mistrial

15:40     The lawyer’s problematic advice

23:16     A prosecutor who eventually does the right thing

27:17      The public defender

31:28      A good person caught in terrible circumstances?

40:40    Missing scenes in the legal narrative

44:46     A dark picture of the U.S. criminal justice system

Further Reading:

“A Forensic Review of ‘Juror #2,’” J. American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, vol. 53(1) (2025)

Banner, Adam, “Honesty in jury pool examined in ‘Juror #2,’” ABA Bar Journal (Jan. 28, 2025)

Brody, Richard, “In ‘Juror #2,’ Clint Eastwood Judges the System Harshly,” New Yorker (Oct 30, 2024)

Melonic, Emina, “The Storytelling of Clint Eastwood,” Law & Liberty (Jan. 10, 2025)

Upendra, Chidella, “The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood,” Journal of Religion & Film, vol. 17(2) (Oct. 2013)

Zagha, Muriel, “Clint Eastwood’s Puritan Morality Tale,” Engelsberg Ideas (Dec. 2, 2024)

Publication Date

11-4-2025

Disciplines

Law

Episode 50: Juror #2 (2024) (Guest: Frank Wohl)

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