California has a complex judicial system and a very large correctional system.
The state's highest court is the supreme court, which may review appellate court decisions and superior court cases involving the death penalty. The high court has a chief justice and six associate justices, all of whom serve 12-year terms; justices are appointed by the governor, confirmed or disapproved by the Commission on Judicial Appointments (headed by the chief justice), and then submitted to the voters for ratification. The chief justice also chairs the Judicial Council, which seeks to expedite judicial business and to equalize judges' caseloads.
Courts of appeal, organized in six appellate districts, review decisions of superior courts and, in certain cases, of municipal and justice courts. There were 93 district appeals court judgeships in 1999. All district court judges are appointed by the governor, reviewed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, and subject to popular election for 12-year terms.
Superior courts in each of the 58 county seats have original jurisdiction in felony, juvenile, probate, and domestic relations cases, as well as in civil cases involving more than $15,000. They also handle some tax and misdemeanor cases and appeals from lower courts. Municipal courts, located in judicial districts with populations of more than 40,000, hear misdemeanors (except those involving juveniles) and civil cases involving $15,000 or less. In districts with less than 40,000 population, justice courts have jurisdiction similar to that of municipal courts. All trial court judges are elected to six-year terms.
As of June 2001 there were 163,965 prisoners in state and federal prisons in California, a decrease of 0.3% from the previous year. The State Department of Corrections maintains 32 state prisons and 38 minimum custody facilities located in wilderness areas where inmates are trained as wildland firefighters.
According to the FBI, California's crime rate in 2001 was 3,902.9 crimes per 100,000 population, including a total of 212,855 violent crimes and 1,133,702 property crimes in that year. In 1965, California became the first state to institute a victim compensation program.
California's death penalty statute received its most serious challenge after the 1948 conviction of Carl Chessman on a charge of forcible rape. Chessman served 12 years on death row at San Quentin, got eight stays of execution, and wrote a best seller about his ordeal. Despite highly publicized attempts to overturn capital punishment and save Chessman's life, the legislature refused to act, and he was executed in 1960. The death penalty was carried out 292 times in California from 1930 to 1977, but only ten times between 1977 and 2003. California had 624 persons under sentence of death in 2003, more than any other state in the nation.