8621431577_d4f24a8eeb_z (1)

Yesterday, we addressed the areas of law comprising the California Supreme Court’s criminal docket between 2000 and 2002.  Today, we turn to the final two years of this initial five-year period – 2003 and 2004.

Death penalty decisions were up sharply in 2003.  The Court decided 19 death penalty appeals in 2003, accounting for 30.65% of the docket.  Criminal procedure, the leading subjects in 2001 and 2002, was another 20.97% of the docket.  The Court decided eight sentencing law cases, another 12.9% of the docket.  Constitutional law was the only other area of law accounting for more than 10% of the docket at 11.29%.  Juvenile issues and habeas corpus each accounted for another 8.06%.  Violent crimes were 4.84% of the docket.  Finally, the Court decided one case each involving property law and sexual offenses – 1.61% each.

Table 56

We report the data for 2004 in Table 57 below.  Death penalty appeals continued to dominate the criminal side of the docket, with 21 cases, or 29.17%.  Criminal procedure accounted for 18.06% of the docket.  Sentencing law was the only other area accounting for more than 10% of the caseload, with 15.28%.  Constitutional law and habeas corpus cases were next, contributing 9.72% apiece.  Sexual offenses were 6.94% of the docket, and violent crimes and juvenile issues accounted for 4.17% apiece.  Attorney admission and discipline and property law cases contributed the final 1.39% apiece of the criminal docket in 2004.

Table 57

Join us back here next Thursday as we turn to the civil docket between 2005 and 2009.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Randy Lemoine (no changes).