Maps, Charts, and Stats for NC Judicial Court Records

NC Datapalooza

Red Hat Annex

Sept 21, 2015

Football stats are widely available and plentiful

What about the court

system that governs

us?

OPEN DATA FOR JUSTICEStats of the NC judicial system

should be open and transparent

But they ain’t

Why does this matter?

Do some judges favor particular

types of defendants?

Wouldn’t you like to

see this guy’s track

record before voting?

Can open data help

citizens & leaders

spot police behavior

patterns sooner?

Do we really need cops like this?

Could open

data have

prevented

Walter Scott’s

death?

Exceeds arrest

rate average,

Black males

42%

Or this…?

This is important and relevant today

"Our courts and juries aren’t impartial arbiters -- they exist

inside society, not outside of it -- and they can only provide

as much justice as society is willing to give.”

Carol Anderson – Emory University

“There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a

human race.”

Toni Morrison – Author

“A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep

sense of insecurity.”

Dalai Lama

The data is publicly available…

Open Data for JusticeNot exactly “user-friendly”

52-page manual, massive dataset, each

position in a record means something

We have started cross-referencing

judges, lawyers, verdict codes,

offenses, arresting officers, and

sentence lengths against the

demographics of the defendants

For 35 million records spanning 2008 - 2013

And we are putting it all online.

So who will use it?

“Big data can transform government by allowing

unprecedented transparency and making possible

previously unimagined oversight of public actors.

Equal justice under law? Let’s find out. With public

access to public information, we can find out if our

criminal justice system works as it should—without

regard to geographic location, the identities,

personalities, or idiosyncrasies of the actors involved,

or with bias introduced by potentially disturbing

factors such as race, gender, or social status. Our

public institutions, including the courts, operate under

norms of public accessibility and openness. This

project seeks to enhance that public accountability.

The tools and analyses that this project will make

possible will help individuals involved in the court

system help themselves and allow analysts from all

sides to crunch the numbers to find out if the system

is as fair and impartial as we hope it is.“

Frank R. BaumgartnerRichard J. Richardson Distinguished

Professor of Political Science

UNC Chapel Hill

http://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/index.html

frankb@unc.edu

Academics & Statisticians

Frank is currently studying race, with particular

emphasis on the death penalty and on traffic stops.

Equal justice under law? Let’s find out

“Government transparency opens

information up to those being

governed. But we need more

transparency in the court system. Of

the three branches of state

government - executive, legislative

and judicial - the judicial system

tends to attract the least amount of

media coverage. Making records

more accessible can only help us

better understand the actions of the

courts.“

John ClarkExecutive Director

Reese News Lab

UNC School of Media & Journalism

johnclark@unc.edu

reesenewslab.org

News Organizations

John currently serves as the Executive Director at

UNC Chapel Hill’s Reese News Lab

we need more transparency in

the court system

“Having transparency in our court

system is a vital component of achieving

justice. I believe that any website or

application that would allow court

officials, journalists and citizens better

access to clear data regarding how our

process works would be an invaluable

tool.“

Amanda L. LambReporter

WRAL News

Alamb@wral.com

919-618-4779

Twitter: @alamb

Facebook: WRAL Amanda Lamb

News Organizations

Amanda covers crime stories and legal news in the

Raleigh and Triangle area

“Governmental transparency is a good thing. We

as voters will be able to make better-informed

choices at the ballot box with easier access to

candidates' track records. For example, we have

a District Court judge here in Wake County with a

reputation for being prejudiced against Hispanics.

I'd like to see that judge's objective data for trials

with Hispanic people compared to other judges'

data. (Comparing % of acquittals, % of jail

sentences; % of fine-only punishments, etc.)

Maybe the reputation will be discredited or maybe

affirmed. Either way, we'll have the ability to make

a better-informed decision with easier access to

the data. As it is today, we don't know if that

judges' reputation is well-deserved or not. People

might vote for or against that judge based on a

reputation that might be entirely undeserved.

Government will function better when the voting

public is better-informed.“

Walter B. RandAttorney at Law

Walter Rand Attorney at Law, PA

Walter@WalterRandLaw.com

919-398-6338

Lawyers

Walter is a criminal defense lawyer in Raleigh NC.

He has been helping people in Wake County for

nearly 20 years

we have a District Court judge here in

Wake County with a reputation for

being prejudiced against Hispanics.

I'd like to see that judge's objective

data

“In 2015, it should not be difficult for someone to obtain

basic information about the racial and gender

demographics of persons charged with a particular crime

in a given jurisdiction. And yet it is. The AOC’s means of

tracking this information is anachronistic and inefficient. It

remains a challenge to get reliable metrics about

important aspects of the criminal justice system as it

relates to race, age, and gender. I hear regularly from

attorneys who believe this information is material to a

particular claim or defense they hope to raise and who are

frustrated by its inaccessibility. If laws are being

selectively enforced, the public and the courts need to

know. This project makes available information that will

make it easier to evaluate the extent to which our system

is delivering on its promise to provide equal justice under

law.“

Ian A. ManceCivil Rights Attorney

Southern Coalition for Social

Justice

ianmance@southerncoalition.org

919-323-3380

Civil Rights & Non-Profit

Organizations

Ian’s current practice includes cases involving police

misconduct, prison conditions, and wrongful

convictions.

It remains a challenge to get reliable metrics

about important aspects of the criminal

justice system as it relates to race, age, and

gender

Everyone should be able to view court decision data

An example of real data we are

analyzing right now:

Possession of < ½ ounce of marijuana

(offense code 3550)

“Too many lives have been ruined for non-violent (drug) offenses.”

Bernie Sanders

Arrest Rates by Race in the USA

ig problem?

3.75X

Statistics for Marijuana Possession and Resisting Arrest

February 2015 - August 2015

9.4X

In Rocky Mount

4.8X in Raleigh

2X in NC

44,322 Single Marijuana Arrests in NC

From 2008-2013(Offense Code 3550, only 1 charge per case)

Sentence lengthJudgeDefendant demographics Verdict Attorney

Map of 44K Home Addresses of People Today That Got Busted

for Marijuana Possession in NC from 2008-2013

(Courtesy of ArcGIS Online)

Find Waldo…

Map of Home Addresses of People Today That Got Busted

for Marijuana Possession in NC from 2008-2013

Raleigh Area

Map of Home Addresses of People Today That Got Busted for

Marijuana Possession in NC from 2008-2013

Heat Map

Head shop goes here

Or here

Map of Home Addresses of People Today That Got Busted

for Marijuana Possession in NC from 2008-2013

By Attorney

Why are there so many people waiving their rights to use a lawyer?

Who are these

2 judges?

And this

one…

Tough on blacks Lenient on

blacks

RHH= Roland Hayes

MHM = Marcia Morey

WKH= William K “Pete” Hunter

We analyzed one single offense

code in one way

There are 1,896 different offense

codes in North Carolina

We are just scratching the surface

of what is possible

Can this be monetized?

Large traffic increase to our existing site,

which contains a monetization path

Free online tools (consumer-facing)

Paid access to data via API (business-facing) $

This is what we have

This is what we deserve

Help us build this

Thank You

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