Today, we’re finishing our review of the county trial courts which accounted for the Supreme Court’s criminal cases from the Fourth District between 2005 and 2019 (to date).

In 2005, the Court decided three cases each from Champaign and Macon counties, and one apiece from Adams, Sangamon and Vermilion.  In 2006, the Court decided two cases from Champaign and one each from Ford, McLean, Moultrie, Sangamon and Vermilion.  In 2007, the Court decided one case each from Adams, Champaign and Macon.  The following year, the Court decided two cases each from Champaign and McLean counties and one case from Adams, Greene and Woodford.  In 2009, the Court decided one criminal case each from the following eight counties: Adams, Champaign, Clark, Livingston, McLean, Morgan, Sangamon and Vermilion.

In 2010, the Court decided one case each from Jersey, Livingston and Macon counties.  In 2011, the Court decided two cases from Champaign county and one each from Adams, Livingston, Macon, McLean and Schuyler.  In 2012, the Court decided two cases from Adams, Champaign and Coles counties and one from Ford.  In 2013, the Court decided one case each from Champaign, Livingston and McLean counties.  In 2014, the Court decided two cases from McLean county and one each from Champaign, Livingston, Macon and Vermilion.

In recent years, the Court’s Fourth District criminal cases have been spread across a number of different counties.  In 2015, the Court decided one case each from Adams, Macoupin, McLean and Sangamon.  The next year, it was one each from Champaign, Livingston and McLean.  In 2017, the Court had two Champaign county cases, but one from Coles and one from Schuyler.  In 2018, the Court decided a couple cases from McLean county and one from Adams, Champaign and Morgan.  In 2019 to date, the Court has decided one case from Macon county and one from McLean.

Finally, for all thirty counties, we chart (1) that county’s share of the total population of the Fourth District according to the 2010 census; (2) that county’s share of the total number of criminal cases decided by the Supreme Court 1990-2019; and (3) that county’s share of the total civil cases.

And we immediately reach a surprise: where Sangamon county was far and away the largest source of civil cases, producing a third of the total cases from the Fourth District, it ranks sixth among the thirty counties in criminal cases.  Or perhaps we should say a superficial surprise – the biggest single driver of Sangamon’s heavy presence on the civil side is government and administrative law cases generated by the state capital.

Champaign county leads on the criminal side.  It’s civil cases were close to in line with its population – 15.23% of the population and 17.65% of the civil cases, but 23.27% of the criminal cases.  McLean county was roughly in line across the board – 15.09% of the criminal cases, 13.73% of the civil cases and 12.85% of the population.  Vermilion was third, producing 12.58% of the criminal cases and 5.23% of the civil cases with 6.18% of the population.  Adams county was only lightly represented on the civil side – 2.61% of the cases with 5.08% of the population.  But it produced 8.8% of the criminal caseload.  Finally, the state capital – Sangamon county is 14.96% of the population, one-third of the civil cases, but only 6.92% of the criminal cases.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, twelve of the thirty counties produced not a single criminal case for the Supreme Court docket from 1990 to 2019.  Eight of those twelve counties that zeroed out on the criminal side also accounted for no civil cases – Brown, Calhoun, Cass, Jersey, Livingston, Mason, Moultrie and Schuyler.  Livingston was the largest of those counties at 2.95% of the population.  Brown, Calhoun and Schuyler were less than 1% of the population.  The remaining four counties which produced no criminal cases were Edgar – 1.41% of the population, 1.31% of the civil cases and no criminal cases; Scott, 0.65% of the civil cases, 0.41% of the population and no criminal cases; Cumberland – 0.65% civil, 0.84% population and no criminal; and DeWitt – 1.31% civil and 1.25% population, but zeroed out on the criminal docket.

Join us back next here next week as we address the data for the Fifth District.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Faungg’s Photos (no changes).