Nevada's supreme court consists of a chief justice and six other justices. There are 51 district court judges organized into nine judicial districts. All judges are elected by nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms.
Nevada's overall crime rate in 2001 was 4,266.0 per 100,000 persons, including a total of 12,359 violent crimes and 77,486 for property crime. There were 10,291 inmates in state and federal correctional facilities in June 2001, an increase of 3.7% over the previous year. The state's incarceration rate stood at 485 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Nevada has a death penalty and has executed nine people between 1977 and 2003. In 2003, 86 persons were under sentence of death.