Because I Got High

People who skip out on jury duty make me mad. First off, it’s your civic duty. Suck it up and miss work for a couple days. Second, I really want to be on a jury and will probably never get to. And while the Homer Simpson method for getting out of jury duty is my favorite, “the trick is to say you’re prejudice against all races,” a lady in Houston had a pretty good way to avoid it.

Judge Sherman Ross tried to assemble a jury of peers for a woman accused of possession of a marijuana on trial Tuesday.

But authorities say prospective juror Cornelia Mayo might have taken that concept a bit too far after she was caught smoking a joint outside the courthouse during a break.

The 49-year-old Houston woman was one of 20 people in a jury pool in Criminal Court at Law No. 10.

Ross said he realized something was wrong when juror No. 2, Mayo, didn’t return from a 45-minute break. Before the judge could file a bench warrant for the missing juror, his bailiff got a call from police notifying him that Mayo was being booked on a charge of smoking marijuana outside the criminal courthouse.

“I’ve had prospective jurors get lost before, but it never occurred to me that they might be getting ready for a marijuana trial by, allegedly, smoking marijuana,” Ross said.

I just want to know what her thought process was, what could have possibly lead her to think firing up a doobie outside the courthouse was a good idea.