The state's highest court is the supreme court, consisting of a chief justice and six other justices, all of whom are initially appointed by the governor. They must be elected after serving three years, and every six years thereafter, running unopposed on their own record. Below the supreme court are the district courts; 53 judges serve 21 districts in the state. These are trial courts of general jurisdiction. County courts handle criminal misdemeanors and civil cases involving less than $5,000. In addition, there are a court of industrial relations, a worker's compensation court, two conciliation courts (family courts), two municipal courts (in Omaha and Lincoln), and juvenile courts in three counties.
In June 2001, prison inmates in state and federal prisons numbered 3,944, an increase of 7.7% over the previous year. The state's incarceration rate stood at 225 per 100,000 inhabitants. Seven persons were executed between 1930 and 1997, three of whom were put to death between 1977 and 2003; seven were under sentence of death in 2003. In 2001, Nebraska had a total crime rate of 4,329.6 per 100,000, including a total of 5,214 violent crimes and 68,963 crimes against property in that year.