COUNTY Misdemeanor bail reform in spotlight as judicial elections loom in November
2022 VOTER GUIDE
A COURT SYSTEM Experts said Harris County Republican and Democratic judges can treat bail for misdemeanor cases dierently, and the Nov. 8 election could aect bail reforms made in recent years.
2022 ?
NOTE: Fifteen of 16 county criminal courts at law are holding elections. For candidates and election info, go to harrisvotes.com. The election for County Criminal Court at Law No. 16 was held in 2020.
BY RACHEL CARLTON
be reinstated, said he believes the lawsuit was “nonsense.” “The system that we were oper- ating under was not perfect by any means, … but there was never anybody in jail in my court on a misdemeanor,” Spjut said. However, Duke University law pro- fessor Brandon Garrett, the court-ap- pointed monitor who oversees the decree, cited improvements made by bail reforms. He released a report Sept. 3 that showed the share of cases resulting in a conviction dropped to 23% in 2020 from 59% in 2015 with the outcome of 18% of 2020 cases undetermined. Clash over bail reform Some critics question the eective- ness of misdemeanor bail reforms in Harris County. Ken W. Good, an attorney who represents bail bond- spersons, said he believes “misde- meanors [are] the training ground today for tomorrow’s felonies.” Nonprot Crime Stoppers stated its support for misdemeanor bail reform in a Sept. 14 news release, but Andy Kahan, director of the victim services and advocacy program for Crime Stoppers, said he believes the ODonnell case has aected how judges set bonds for felonies. Meanwhile, Alexandra del Moral Mealer, the Republican opponent of current County Judge Lina Hidalgo, said in a statement to Community Impact she would le a motion to dissolve the ODonnell decree on her rst day in oce if elected. However, lawyers, professors and judges said it is not yet clear how a change in the makeup of the courts could have an eect on ODonnell. Good said a new misdemeanor judge could choose not to follow the decree. But Garrett said it takes extreme circumstances to reopen a settled case. “I don’t know if they’re going to change the system back,” said David Fleischer, County Criminal Court at Law No. 5 judge who is running for re-election. “We put in a lot of work [to show] that any fear that someone might have had about [misdemeanor] bail reform is just nonsensical.”
Following years of reforms to Harris County’s misdemeanor bail system, the upcoming midterm elections Nov. 8 could see changes to court judge positions that could aect those reforms and how misde- meanor bail is treated by the county’s justice system. Cash bail for misdemeanors was scrutinized in 2017 after U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal found the county’s policy of using cash bail to hold people in jail while they awaited trial violated the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit included Maranda Lynn ODonnell—a single mother arrested for driving with an invalid license and held in jail for three days after being unable to pay a $2,500 bond. While the lawsuit was underway, the 2018 midterm elections ipped the composition of the county’s mis- demeanor court judges from entirely Republican to entirely Democrat, according to Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. The newly elected Democratic cohort settled the lawsuit, culminat- ing in the November 2019 ODonnell Consent Decree, which eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor arrestees. Now, with elections nearing in November for 15 out of 16 County Criminal Courts at Law— which hear Class A and Class B mis- demeanor cases—Jones said debate over the county’s reforms could spill into campaigns for all judicial races. “You’re denitely going to see the Republican judicial candidates as a group use the idea of criminals out on bail … and particularly criminals out on [personal recognizance] bonds as one of their principal campaign messages,” Jones said. When ODonnell v. Harris County was led in May 2016, the lawsuit originally named the county, then-Sheri Ron Hickman and ve hearing ocers as defendants, but an amended complaint from August 2016 added the 16 Republican misde- meanor judges. Dan Spjut, a Republican and former judge of County Criminal Court at Law No. 10 in 2016 who lost his seat in 2018 and is running to
2018 15 DEMOCRATIC judges elected to county criminal court judge seats
2014 15 REPUBLICAN judges elected to county criminal court judge seats
15 COUNTY CRIMINAL COURT JUDGE seats up for election Nov. 8
SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY OFFICE OF THE ELECTIONS ADMINISTRATORCOMMUNITY IMPACT
IN CONTEXT ODONNELL
Misdemeanor court judges have ipped between parties the last two midterms amid the ODonnell v. Harris County lawsuit regarding the county’s misdemeanor cash bail policies that have resulted in countywide reforms. Fifteen
misdemeanor judge positions in Harris County will be on the ballot Nov. 8.
APRIL 28, 2017
NOV. 14, 2014
U.S. District Court Judge Lee Rosenthal issues a preliminary injunction, stopping misdemeanor cash bail countywide.
Fifteen Republican misdemeanor judges in Harris County all win their elections.
A lawsuit against the county is led by Maranda Lynn ODonnell, a mother held in jail for three days unable to pay a $2,500 bond.
NOV. 6, 2018
MAY 19, 2016
Fifteen Democratic misdemeanor judges win their elections; all 16 courts are headed by Democratic judges.
Amended Local Rule 9 dictates changes to several county misdemeanor bail policies, including personal bond release, bail hearings and representation.
JAN. 17, 2019
AUG. 31, 2016
Sixteen Harris County misdemeanor judges are added as defendants to the lawsuit.
Sheri Ed Gonzalez, County Criminal Court at Law Judge No. 16 Darrell Jordan and District Attorney Kim Ogg win elections but are not parties to the case.
Rosenthal approves the ODonnell Consent Decree following the lawsuit, which eliminates cash bail for most misdemeanor arrestees.
NOV. 21, 2019
NOV. 8, 2016
SOURCES: HARRIS COUNTY OFFICE OF THE ELECTIONS ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT, HARRIS COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTS AT LAWCOMMUNITY IMPACT
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SPRING KLEIN EDITION • OCTOBER 2022
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