Justice of the Peace Beth Smith was recently summoned to jury duty in her own courtroom. (Courtesy photo)
by WES FERGUSON
Beth Smith couldn’t help but laugh when she saw the letter in her mailbox the other day. It was an official jury duty summons to the Hays County Justice of the Peace Precinct 2 court in Kyle.
When it comes to excuses for getting out of jury duty, Smith had one of the best — she’s the judge who presides over that court.
“It goes to show how random jury duty is,” Smith said.
When Smith received the summons, she figured she had two options. She could have asked another judge to sit on the bench that day — May 2 — so she could serve her time, or she could save everyone the hassle and exempt herself. She decided to exempt herself.
“It worked out okay,” Smith said. “We chose two juries that day. I was juror No. 47, and we would have not gotten to me anyway.”
Smith calls her court the “people’s court.” Justices of the peace have jurisdiction in misdemeanor cases, such as those for traffic violations, and they hear civil cases for small claims of $10,000 or less, among other duties.
To issue summons, she said, her clerks press a button on a computer that randomly selects a juror pool. Letters are then mailed directly from the district clerk’s office. Anybody with a driver’s license can be selected for jury duty, and people who fail to appear can be held in contempt of court.
“Not enough people show up,” Smith said. “Juror apathy is almost as bad as voter apathy, to be honest.”
In her 13 years as a justice of the peace, Smith had never been called to jury duty in her own courtroom. She’s had jury duty in other courts, though.
“My husband gets called all the dang time,” she said. “And he always gets picked. I say, ‘What do you do, tell them, ‘Pick me?’’ It’s hysterical.”
