Out on Bond

Purpose

Cross-referencing Harris County District Clerk records to identify murder and violent felony defendants who had concurrent active criminal cases at the time of their new charge. Each defendant is plotted by home address, colored by concurrent case count, and sized by bond amount.

Why It Matters

The O'Donnell consent decree reshaped how Harris County sets bail for misdemeanor defendants. This investigation surfaces defendants who cycled through the system — accumulating active cases while facing new violent charges — making the court data visible as geography.

Explore the Data

Methodology

Bond status proxy: defendant identified as "on bond" if they had ≥1 other active criminal case (case_status=A) in the HCDC database at the time of a murder (offense_desc ILIKE MURDER) or violent felony charge. Defendant addresses geocoded via Mapbox Geocoding API. Color tier based on concurrent active case count: 1 case (amber), 2 cases (orange), 3 cases (red), 4+ cases (purple). Column height scales with concurrent cases and bond amount.

Citation