Last week I did my civic duty and headed down to the courthouse on Wednesday morning. I’ve been called for jury duty 5 or 6 times since moving to Texas (mostly due to registering to vote in new counties and updating records at the DMV… that’s how they getcha!) but never got picked for a criminal trial. Until last week of course. Wednesday, Thursday, and most of the day on Friday I was locked up in the “Jury Deliberation Room”, arguing with 11 other people.

Now that’s it’s over, I’m technically free to talk about it, but given the, umm, seemingly scary background of the defendant, I think I’m going to pass. Suffice to say, although he probably did it, the DA had zero evidence. It was actually one of the weakest presentations of evidence I’ve ever seen. This dude was serious scum of the earth, but there wasn’t anything tying him to the crime. We all wanted to put him away, he was up for 25-life, but that whole “reasonable doubt” thing weighed heavy on everyone. Well, almost everyone. We had a kindergarten teacher who refused to believe anything and held out her verdict, and wouldn’t change. We were 11-1, not guilty. Not because the guy was innocent, but because we couldn’t prove it. Which, if you think about it, is how the system is supposed to work anyway. Anyway, the jury was hung and the judge declared a miss-trial. Three days wasted.

So, if you were wondering where on earth I disappeared to, there ya go.

Lots of work to catch up on, blogging too. I’m sure there will be a flurry of posts this week 😉