32/365: Bitter Sweet Freedom, Jury Duty Summons

Postponed once because of our product’s December release date, my jury duty day was upon me. An odd time slot of 12:15pm loomed over my day putting a damper on any afternoon coding plans / meetings and possibly for the remainder of the week.

The day happened to coincide with Suit Up Day @ PROS so I decided to keep my suit on to let the judge know I meant business… I made my way to the courthouse through the blustery cold & wind after taking the rail from my office into downtown.

Some cameraman argues with an HPD officer. Eventually is let in… apparently he was filming the DA.

Taking an Oath!

I wasn’t a part of the first few juror calls, but with ~20 people left I thought for sure we would be free to go. NOPE. They called all of us to line up and a sheriff walked us over through the howling wind to the Harris County Criminal Justice Center where we passed through a metal detector.

We then went up into a juror deliberation room while the judge reviewed a list of all of us. He then called us all in and debriefed us on the importance of serving as a juror and being impartial & basing our verdict on the facts presented to us. Each representing side of the court asked several pointed questions pertaining to the case both to us as a whole and individually.

Due to the subject matter of the case (DWI) and involvement in some way of almost everyone on the jury panel, the judge declared our entire panel a “bust” and dismissed us all.

Taking the rail back, I found that someone is missing their hot date’s number. Officer Evans…