Idaho judiciary releases report on court cases

Every year Idaho’s courts handle thousands of criminal and civil cases, which are tracked from the time they are filed to when a sentence is issued or judgment entered.

The State of Idaho Judicial Branch released its report, which includes statewide information on those cases and sentences. The report, which can be found at courtdata.idaho.gov/Charge, provides information on Idaho’s courts, finances and statistics.

The 2nd Judicial District, which includes Nez Perce, Latah, Idaho, Clearwater and Lewis counties, had a total of 4,641 criminal cases filed in 2023, which includes felony and misdemeanors. The number of cases decreased by 3% from the previous year. Of those cases, 2,589 resulted in a conviction, four received an acquittal and 1,457 were dismissed.

In total in 2023, Latah County had 884 cases filed, Idaho County had 809 cases filed, Clearwater County had 287 cases filed and Lewis County had 82 cases filed in 2023.

Nez Perce County had the highest number of cases with 2,579, but it also has the highest population at 42,987. The number of cases filed also decreased by 8% from 2022, which had 2,817, the highest number of cases since 2019. Of those cases, 423 were felonies and 2,156 were misdemeanors. The month with the most felony cases filed was June with 49, but March had the most misdemeanors with 219.

The report also includes information on fines and fees, and how and where they are distributed. Fines are penalties for violating state law and fees can include document filing fees or expenses that come after a person is found guilty in a criminal case or infraction. The payments are distributed to local and statewide funds as determined by the Idaho Legislature, which can include paying for probation, victim compensation, court costs, technology fees or public defender costs.

The 2nd Judicial District collected $57,972,512 in fines and fees in 2024. Most of those went to misdemeanor cases at 34%, 27% were for infractions, 22% were for civil cases and 17% were for felony cases.

The judicial report also includes statewide sentencing reports from 2019-23 to help judges impose similar sentences across the state. The report uses cases from 2019-23 and separates the numbers into different categories based on the crime committed.

Drug cases were the highest with 19,381 felony drug crimes cases. Most were sentenced to probation at 45%, 22.5% were sentenced to prison, 23.5% received retained jurisdiction, and 7% received withheld judgment. There were also 3,224 felony DUI cases with 47.9% of those cases being sentenced to probation.

There were 7,152 cases of felony crimes against persons, which includes child sex abuse, domestic violence, rape and murder. Of those, 44% had their sentence imposed and no cases resulted in a death sentence.

In child sex abuse cases, 68.9% had their sentences imposed and 5.8% were given a life sentence. For felony rape, sexual assault and battery cases, 57% were sentenced to prison and 8.4% were sentenced to life in prison.

For cases where the crime included a weapon such as threats of violence or unlawful possession of a weapon, which had 908 cases, 48.3% had the sentence imposed and 0.1% were sentenced to life in prison.

In felony domestic violence cases, 27% had the sentence imposed, 28.8% had retained jurisdiction, 33.5% were sentenced to probation and 10% received a withheld judgment. Of those sentenced to prison, 0.1% were given a life sentence.

Others crimes against person include murder, manslaughter, robbery, injury to children, harassment, assault or battery that isn’t domestic violence or sexual abuse. Of those cases, 39% received a prison sentence with 1.8% receiving life in prison.