I wanted to post about this because I’m sure I’ll wonder in the future when this was and now I can check my blog about it.

I had jury duty yesterday. They selected 60 people for the Houston juvenile court. I thought this was a big pool that would be divided between multiple court rooms. Turns out it was for one case.

The case was capital murder while committing armed robbery “with a deadly weapon, namely a firearm”. All 60 of us were in the same selection pool. When they started “voir dare” I was surprised by how talkative the pool was. I really wanted to do my duty and be on the jury, so I was quiet. Especially after the attorney asked if anyone had problems understanding English. She said, “You laugh but we have people selected for jury duty who don’t understand what we are saying, because they don’t say anything.”

After the prosecutor got done asking questions and taking responses, we were given a break. When we returned they told us to go home, that they couldn’t make a jury. Out of 60 people they couldn’t find 12 or 14. Or the whole pool was considered tainted by something said.

You know jury duty is the only duty a citizen of the US has. I don’t think taxes are a duty, just a law. Voting you don’t have to do. Military service isn’t considered a duty like it is in other countries.