Jury Duty

Monday I fulfilled my civic duty as an American. Technically, I suppose it was my duty as a Harris County resident. Up to this point I had been able to evade jury duty by playing the "college student" or "grad student" card. Well, those days are long gone, my friends. Less than 6 months out of my full-time grad student status, I received another jury summons.


It just so happened that my mother and I were "randomly selected" for jury duty...same date, same time, same place. Random selection, I tell you.

Lesson of the day: the wheels of justice do, indeed, grind slowly. Or maybe I should say they grind in a disorganized fashion. After they had selected my jury panel, assigned numbers, paraded all sixty-two of us down and across the street to the Criminal Justice building, and lined us up in order, someone decided a jury was unnecessary after all. I wasn't complaining.

My mother was assigned to a panel for an aggravated sexual assault (of a 13 year old). Ugh. In addition to the above mentioned process, hearing each potential juror's objections took half the morning. In the end, my mom wasn't picked for the jury despite her low selection number.

I’ll admit I was somewhat disappointed. Given my strong taste for CourTv and "American Justice", I was excited to witness my first ever live criminal trial. Let me just put it out there that I am more excited, however, to spend time with my mom over Spring Break :) Besides, now that I am familiar with the Criminal Justice building, I can pop in to observe criminal trials on my days off :)