Death Row USA Summer 2022 Report: Death-Row Population Continues Long-Term Decline

The number of people sentenced to death or facing the possibility of a death sentence in pending capital retrial or resentencing proceedings continued its more than two-decade decline in the third quarter of last year, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) Summer 2022 quarterly census of death rows across the United States. 

In its recently issued Summer 2022 edition of Death Row USA (DRUSA), LDF reported that the number of people on U.S. state, federal, or military death rows or facing possible capital resentencing had fallen to 2,394 — 80 less than the previous year. LDF also found that the capital convictions or death sentences of 195 people listed in its 2021 report have been reversed. 

As of July 1, 2022, LDF reported that 876 people, or 36.6% of those on death row or facing capital resentencing were in states with moratoria on executions. Including those persons in other states whose death sentences have been reversed, LDF calculated that there were 1,373 currently enforceable death sentences, comprising 57.4% of all active cases in which a death sentence has been imposed.