Yesterday, we reviewed the geographic sources of the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil docket in the first five years of our study period from 2000 to 2004. Today, we compare the originating counties for the criminal docket during the same years. We conclude that in many years early in the twenty-first century, Cook County did not account for a portion of the criminal docket equivalent to its population, and the criminal docket generally tended to be more widely dispersed around the state than the civil docket was.

The data for 2000 is reported in Table 163 below. Cases from Cook County comprised 42.68% of the criminal docket – almost exactly the same share that Cook County has of statewide population. Du Page and St. Clair counties accounted for 5% each of the docket, Kane and Lake counties 3% each, and Will, Madison, McLean, Jefferson and Vermillion counties originated 2% apiece of the docket. Another twenty-one counties were the source of one criminal case each, collectively accounting for 21% of the docket.

Cases from Cook County were down sharply as a fraction of the criminal docket in 2001, falling to 25.86% of the docket of criminal, quasi-criminal and disciplinary cases. Cases from Kane County were up to 10.34% of the docket. Du Page and Champaign counties accounted for 8.62%. Three counties – Sangamon (the state capital), Adams and LaSalle – produced 5.17% of the docket apiece. Lake, Kankakee and Rock Island counties originated 2 cases each – 3.45% of the docket. Twelve different counties produced one case each, collectively accounting for 20.69% of the docket.

Cases from Cook County rose somewhat in 2002 as a fraction of the criminal docket to 36.23% (although still below the county’s population share). The Court heard six cases each from Kane and Henry counties – 8.7% of the docket apiece. Cases from Du Page County were down slightly to 4.35% of the docket. The Court heard two criminal cases each from Sangamon, Winnebago, Will, Vermillion, Peoria and DeKalb counties – 2.9% of the docket apiece. The Court heard one case apiece from an additional seventeen counties.

The data from 2003 is reported in Table 166 below. Cases from Cook County were up slightly, with the Court hearing 28 criminal cases, or 42.42% of the docket. Cases from Du Page and Will counties were up to 9.09% and 7.57% of the docket, respectively. Vermillion County accounted for 6.06% of the Court’s cases, Lake and Madison 4.55% each, and Bureau 3.03% of the docket. Finally, fifteen counties and administrative boards produced one case for the Court’s criminal docket apiece.

We report the data from 2004 in Table 167 below. Criminal cases from Cook County were down again in 2004. Madison and Champaign counties produced three cases each – 5.26% of the docket. Ten counties – Winnebago, Sangamon, Du Page, Kankakee, La Salle, Livingston, Peoria, Rock Island, Macoupin and Macon – originated 2 cases apiece, or 3.51% of the docket. The final 21.05% of the criminal caseload consisted of twelve counties and administrative boards which produced one case each.

Join us back here next week as we address the sources of the civil and criminal dockets for next five years of our study period – 2005-2009.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Bill Ingram (no changes).