For the past several weeks, we’ve been reviewing the originating jurisdictions – in nearly all cases, the county Superior Court – which have accounted for the California Supreme Court’s civil, criminal and death penalty dockets. Yesterday, we reviewed the civil docket between 2010 and 2015.  Today, we turn to the criminal docket for the same years.

Interestingly, the distribution of the criminal docket over the past six years has tracked population much more closely than the civil docket has.  Los Angeles County produced 88 cases, or only 25.88% of the docket.  San Diego County produced 30 cases, putting it almost exactly in line with its share of the population at 8.82%.  Orange County is in line with its population as well, producing 29 criminal cases, or 8.53% of the docket.  However, Riverside County – the fourth biggest county in terms of population – was second in criminal caseload, accounting for 38 cases, or 11.18% of the docket.  San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Sacramento and Alameda counties, the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth most populous counties, produced 19, 19, 17 and 14 criminal cases, respectively – each around 5% of the criminal docket.

Contra Costa County, ninth in population, was next, producing nine criminal cases at the Court in six years.  Tulare and Sonoma counties had five each.  San Francisco – a much bigger player in the civil docket – produced only four criminal cases, as did Monterey County.  Solano, Yolo, Kings and Lassen counties produced three each.  The rest of the docket was scattered, with nineteen different jurisdictions accounting for either two or one case between 2010 and 2016.

Join us back here next Thursday, as we turn our attention to the death penalty docket for the years 2010 to 2015.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Doc Searls (no changes).