Jury Duty

Oh the fateful summons.
People complain so much about jury duty...present company not excluded. It seems like such a waste of time and NEVER comes at a "good time". :) I've been summoned twice before but never been selected.

This year I was not "picked" they instead call it "not being marked off the list". Joy. Make me feel even better about it.

On Monday I wanted to drive myself down instead of riding the city Metro bus (as I had the previous two times I'd been summoned), but in a quick change of mind I swung through the Park n' Ride. However, as no buses were in sight and no schedule was posted...I drove.
In doing so, I did not notice the speeding motorcycle cop. As I turned on my signal and pulled to the right to avoid construction there was a sudden blaring of sirens...right next to me. Shaken I whipped my car back into the other lane and watched as the motorcycle cop sped on his way disappearing in a minute! I have decided that policemen might not have horns...only sirens.

I made it to the downtown parking garage and hurried to the court building. Settling down into a chair in one of the large waiting rooms (they separate you with juror numbers) I opened my book and relaxed. Waiting was just going to become a normal part of life for the next several hours and I knew it. At last they made us watch the obligatory video about what an honor it is to serve on a jury and I facetiously paid attention...really I would have loved to comment on the droll voice of the narrator or the obviously staged photos with someone...but I didn't want to show any disrespect.
After some technical difficulties with the film (the sound stopped working for a couple of slides) and an obnoxious man who played dumb about parking and complained that he wasn't dressed properly for duty (um, you are told what is proper on the handout they mail you with your summons...) we finally got down to business.

I realized as I listened to that complainer and several people around me how selfish they sounded...and how selfish I was feeling. It IS a good thing to have an honest jury- I would want one if I ever got dragged to court for something! And really, along with voting, it's my duty as an American to serve in that way...it isn't as awful as it seems. After these realizations my attitude was adjusted properly and I went back to my book.

They began to put numbers up on the screen and send groups of jurors with police officers to their various courts for the "de-selection" process. I am not sure how I missed my number being called...I think that maybe (even though I printed my summons out fresh that morning) my number was changed. As I was reading I heard a lady suddenly ask:
"Is there a Hannah (I omit the rest of my name in case you don't know it :) in here?"
I whipped my head up and timidly raised my hand. I HATE being the center of attention in a large crowd and there were a couple hundred people in that room.
To make matters worse, when she saw my hand she said:
"Ah, you belong to this gentleman."
And standing behind her was an enormous policeman.
I wanted to die on the spot. What a way to phrase it!
"I wish I belonged to someone" a person near me muttered loud enough for several people to overhear and laugh.
I did the walk of shame out the door to my group of 24 other potential jurors.
Head held high I slid into the middle of the group hoping to pretend nothing had happened. We went through the underground tunnels (I love that about Houston) and up to the 9th floor of another building in the city.

We were then filed into a freezing courtroom and given an hour lecture on what it meant to be a juror and the type of case we would be hearing about- possession of marijuana. (I am so excited that I can FINALLY talk about it! Keeping the secret for 24 hours was VERY difficult. :)
After another hour of listening to the attorneys discuss some key points with us they began the questions (so they would know who they wanted to cut.) As I was juror number 6, I knew that my chances of not being picked were slim. They start with numbers 1-6 and if they don't eliminate any of them, those are the selected jury members...unless I got eliminated I was a shoo-in. Internally I wrestled with curiosity over actually serving as a jury member and dread at having to listen to a dull case and miss work another day or two...or horrors! several more days!

I listened to more selfish people make up reasons on why they shouldn't be selected and prayed for patience and peace. Because I was in the front row and center I couldn't see the faces of those around me. I kept up a good poker face and just waited. Finally they selected 6 of us: 5 women and 1 man. We were ushered up to the juror's stand and sworn in then marched to a back room for some additional information.

We put on badges that said "Juror" in huge letters and had the judge's name listed underneath and were told we must wear these the next day. Our judge stated that the case should only take one day, and court was adjourned since it was nearing 5pm.

Freed we hurried home.

This morning, on my way to the court from the parking garage (I decided to just drive again since we didn't know how long it would take to finish the case) I watched a policeman on horseback deal with a man who was loitering and slipped by some men in handcuffs and dozens of people waiting outside of the large skyscraper where my courtroom was. I went through the detection process (shoes off and placed along with my bag on the conveyor belt to check for weapons). I normally keep a large pocket knife in my purse (I'm not really sure why or if I would ever use it) but I had had the presence of mind to remove it the day before.

All day we were treated like royalty. Everyone must rise any time the six of us jurors entered or exited the courtroom (which happened SEVERAL times). We are not to ask or answer any questions of the witnesses, lawyers or the defendant (there was no plaintiff) during the trial. We are simply observers and ONLY information heard from the witnesses while on the stand or evidence approved by the judge can be considered during our final judgement. We also were not allowed to talk to each other about the case ALL day (other than comments about how loud the judge was or how much we (I) began to hate the word "objection!")

We were treated to lunch and walked downtown a few blocks to a place called Treebeard's...all gumbo and similar spicy foods...my mouth hated me after lunch. We listened to arguments back and forth and truthfully I wanted to just be allowed to make my decision right away.

The facts:
Policeman out doing his duty as a "Traffic Violations" officer passes a car with a crack that runs vertically almost the entire length of the windshield.
Deciding to check out that crack and let the driver know that it is a hazard he pulls him over - this is NOT uncommon. Daily routine.
Officer approaches car to talk to the driver and is hit with the scent of marijuana from the open window.
Naturally all thought of a cracked windshield is put on a back burner.
Officer asks driver to step out of the car and asks him if he is in possession of marijuana (he can see stems and seeds that look like it on the driver's side.)
Driver admits "yes in the middle console".
Driver is cuffed and taken to jail- this should be settled out of court, he already owned to having the marijuana.

But NO.

Someone (him, his mother, who knows) decided that they could question the policeman's motive in pulling him over. Saying it was illegal and could put our freedom and liberty at stake.

So I and 5 other people missed work today to listen to the defensive attorney bicker at a poor policeman who was only doing his job. He didn't go to work that day intending to arrest anyone...it's not his fault the young man decided to have marijuana in his car.

We had to view pictures of the windshield as the defense attorney tried to keep us from ever hearing the part about the marijuana. (I am sick of looking at cars' windshields.) All day we listened to arguments, were told to recess so the lawyers could have private arguments with the judge, re-entered for 10-15 minutes, only to be told to recess again. (You know, recess was a LOT more fun when I was 8...)

At last, we finally had reached the time where we were allowed to go and talk to each other about the case and make our decision. Yes! I thought. It's easy. They proved that the police officer had "probable cause" and was justified in pulling the car over and the possession of marijuana is undeniable- they passed the actual evidence bag through our 6 pairs of hands. No doubt in my mind, the young man was guilty- end of discussion.

4 of the other jurors were right there with me...BUT it was down to one girl. She refused to believe the officer had "probable cause". Frustrated we spent over an hour debating, arguing and reasoning with her.

This Norman Rockwell painting: The Jury Holdout is a good depiction (only ignore the smoke and make only one of the members a man...)

She finally was persuaded about the probable cause, we all agreed on the possession issue, and I got to push the special button! (They have a small button that you push 1 time if you have a question (ex. need to reread part of the testimony to refresh a memory or want to read a law being discussed, etc.) OR you push it 2 times if you have made your final decision.) The button sticks a bit so after my first push there were a couple of seconds before the second push and I'm sure sitting inside the courtroom the defendant must have been in a turmoil. I had avoided looking at him most of the case because I didn't want to show pity or have any emotions about the case. The only person I truly felt sorry for was his mother.

The judge decided we would stay to hear the punishment (much to the dismay of his lawyer who made a small scene about it...one of many scenes she'd made that day) and we listened in astonishment as they read aloud that the same young man had been a part of a major crime not two years ago. He was told that he would be going straight to jail and I couldn't bring myself to look at his mother.

We were then told to recess a final time and waited behind the scenes for the judge. He was a very jolly Texan man (who cracked several jokes throughout our two days) and made it fun...I almost wanted to ask him to autograph my summons, ha! :)

He told us we could stay and answer questions from the lawyers and witnesses if we wanted and the six of us practically stampeded for the elevators!