Jury Doody Recap

Today I had a summons for jury duty, so with the inevitable groaning and mumbling I headed down to the Houston Municipal Court. Last time I got summoned was District Court where the big stuff (robbery, murder, etc.) go. Municipal court is the "lowest rung" of the crimnal justice ladder as the judge put it and is people fighting citations for traffic, city ordinances (noise, etc.), and other low level "criminal offenses." Joy, so my summary of this is "a whole lot of crappy cases for people that won't just pay the speeding ticket." Although, interesting side note, Texas is one of only a few states that still allow jury trials for these offenses and the only exception is the much beloved red light camera tickets which are civil offenses.

Anyway, I was summoned for 10am, got there early at 9:30 since apparently traffic doesn't suck later in the morning and I proceeded to wait... and wait and wait. At 11:30 I was called to a panel (the first of the day) and we were taken outside a courtroom, where we waited some more. Then we were told to go to lunch... for an hour and half. Then we came back at 1:15 and waited... and waited until 2:00 when we were called in to the courtroom. In the courtroom, we waited, until they finally asked us the questions about being impartial. All I know is that this was a traffic issue with a limo and the limo driver was representing himself. The prosecutor asked typical questions about who thinks cops are scum and who thinks cops never tell a lie. The limo drivers only jury question... who has ever rented or been in a limo? I have no idea what the citation is but it really sounded like he was fishing for having ANY question to ask us.

But thankfully, I was number 12 in the panel and number 11 was the last juror needed. So I am now 2 for 2 on getting on a jury panel and missing the cut by one person. But the summary of my day is I waited for 5 hrs for 20min of panel questioning and then sent home. Good enough for me, time to take my $6 and go.