Jury Duty
Why Does Civic Duty Require Hours Of Doing Nothing?
I survived one more jury duty callup. 6 1/2 hours parked on a hard wooden bench, with only one break, and no chance to sneak in a nap or two.
This was Muni Court, so mostly traffic cases, some code violations, and a few Class C misdemeanors get tried there. Texas allows a trial by jury for any finable offense, hence the callup.
They called in over 100 possible jurors, but only impaneled 28, of which only 12 actually made it through voir dire and heard a case. The rest of us sat on our keisters until they cut us loose around 4 pm.
The people watching opportunity was excellent. For a true cross section of humanity, nothing beats the State Fair or Traffic Court. There were grotty old bums there for Public Intoxication, and Gucci & Chanel-clad trophy wives there to plead nolo to driving their Mercedes SL at 120 mph down Allen Parkway.
I got a pretty good laugh watching folks get through the metal detector at the entrance. One dumbass had his britches belted on below his asscheeks, and when his huge steel belt buckle kept setting off the metal detector, he whipped off the belt, took three steps and FLOP! Down went his pants around his ankles. Good thing he was wearing boxers, I suppose.
Got paid $6 for my sittin'. Already spent most of it tipping the pizza delivery guy!
I survived one more jury duty callup. 6 1/2 hours parked on a hard wooden bench, with only one break, and no chance to sneak in a nap or two.
This was Muni Court, so mostly traffic cases, some code violations, and a few Class C misdemeanors get tried there. Texas allows a trial by jury for any finable offense, hence the callup.
They called in over 100 possible jurors, but only impaneled 28, of which only 12 actually made it through voir dire and heard a case. The rest of us sat on our keisters until they cut us loose around 4 pm.
The people watching opportunity was excellent. For a true cross section of humanity, nothing beats the State Fair or Traffic Court. There were grotty old bums there for Public Intoxication, and Gucci & Chanel-clad trophy wives there to plead nolo to driving their Mercedes SL at 120 mph down Allen Parkway.
I got a pretty good laugh watching folks get through the metal detector at the entrance. One dumbass had his britches belted on below his asscheeks, and when his huge steel belt buckle kept setting off the metal detector, he whipped off the belt, took three steps and FLOP! Down went his pants around his ankles. Good thing he was wearing boxers, I suppose.
Got paid $6 for my sittin'. Already spent most of it tipping the pizza delivery guy!
posted by El Capitan | 7:48 PM
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