Conviction Rates vs. Compensation Rates

The Texas Office of Court Administration collects statistical information on each court in Texas. Through the use of their online Trial Court Judicial Data Management System, anyone can look at some very interesting statistics concerning Texas courts.

Looking at other Texas counties that have about the same size populations as Bell County, we can see the following conviction rates for the last three years:

This chart contains data from October 1, 2005, to September 30, 2008.

Looking at the chart, you can quickly see that Bell County and Williamson County have the highest conviction rates. But what don’t you see? I don’t see a connection between court-appointed attorney rates and conviction rates. A recent post of mine shows the court appointed attorney hourly rates for these same counties. Looking at that chart and this one, I don’t see a connection.

For example, Jefferson County pays the lowest hourly fees, but they have the lowest conviction rate. Conversely, Webb County pays the highest hourly fees. and they have a slightly higher than average conviction rate.

Of course, Bell County has the highest conviction rate of Texas counties our size – and we are tied for second-to-lowest court appointed hourly rates. However, Galveston has the same hourly rate, and their conviction rate is as much lower than the average conviction rate as our county is higher (70% versus 95% , with an 82% state-wide average).

Bottom line, these numbers are interesting, but I’m not sure what conclusions we can draw from just looking at this limited data set. Looking at just these counties, over the last three years, there does not appear to be a correlation between conviction rates and court appointed attorney compensation rates.

Does anyone have any other ideas on what the cause of higher-than-average conviction rates?