Idaho's highest court, the supreme court, consists of five justices, each elected at large on a nonpartisan ballot, to a six-year term; the justice with the shortest remaining term automatically becomes chief justice. There is a three-member court of appeals. The district court, with 37 judges in 1999, is the main trial court in civil and criminal matters, while magistrates' courts handle traffic, misdemeanor, and minor civil cases and preliminary hearings in felony cases. Like supreme court justices, appeals court justices and district court judges are elected by nonpartisan ballot, for six years and four years, respectively. Magistrates are appointed by a commission and run for four-year terms in the first general election succeeding the 18-month period followed appointment.
Idaho's crime rates are low in almost every category. The total rate in 2001 was 3,133.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, including a total of 3,211 violent crimes and 38,181 property crimes in that year. The state permits execution by lethal injection and since 1930 has executed 4 persons, only one of whom was put to death since 1977. In 2003 there were 21 persons under sentence of death. As of June 2001, there were 5,688 inmates in state and federal prisons, an increase of 4.1% over the previous year. The state's incarceration rate stood at 431 per 100,000 inhabitants.