Death Row
Around 2,500 prisoners currently face execution in the United States. The national death-row population has declined for 18 consecutive years, as sentence reversals, executions, and deaths by other causes are outpacing new death sentences.
DPIC Page: Conditions on Death Row
Includes information such as the length of time prisoners spend on death row
DPIC Page: Racial Demographics
Racial demographics of death-row prisoners
DPIC Report: The 2% Death Penalty
How a Minority of Counties Produce Most Death Cases at Enormous Costs to All
DPIC Page: Sentencing Data
Information on new death sentences
Death Row Prisoners by State
Total Number of Death-Row Prisoners* as of April 1, 2019: 2,673
| State | Number of Prisoners |
|---|---|
|
California |
732 |
|
Florida |
349 |
|
Texas |
223 |
|
Alabama |
181 |
|
Pennsylvania |
154 |
|
North Carolina |
143 |
|
Ohio |
141 |
|
Arizona |
121 |
|
Nevada |
74 |
|
Louisiana |
69 |
|
U.S. Fed. Gov't. |
61 |
|
Tennessee |
58 |
|
Georgia |
53 |
|
Oklahoma |
47 |
|
Mississippi |
45 |
|
South Carolina |
38 |
|
Oregon |
32 |
|
Arkansas |
32 |
|
Kentucky |
31 |
|
Missouri |
24 |
|
Nebraska |
12 |
|
Kansas |
10 |
|
Indiana |
9 |
|
Utah |
8 |
|
Idaho |
8 |
|
U.S. Military |
4 |
|
Colorado |
3 |
|
Virginia |
3 |
|
South Dakota |
2 |
|
Montana |
2 |
|
New Mexico** |
2 |
|
New Hampshire |
1 |
|
Wyoming |
1 |
Source: Death Row Population Figures from NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. “Death Row USA” (April, 2019).
* Figures include persons whose death sentences have been overturned but who still face the possibility of being re-sentenced to death after a new trial or new sentencing hearing. The number of prisoners in the U.S. facing active death sentences is lower.
** New Mexico repealed the death penalty in March 2009, but the law was not made retroactive. 2 remain on death row.
“I miss the stars. You know, I haven’t seen the stars in years and years and years. I miss the rain. I miss food. I miss all these things. But what it comes down to the most — and this is the thing that will scar me the most and that I’ll carry with me as a scar the longest — the thing I miss the most is being treated like a human being.”
—CNN interview with Damien Echols on Arkansas death row since 1993
(Jan. 13, 2011) (released August 2011).
Jul 10, 2019
Spring 2019 “Death Row USA” Documents Further Shrinking of U.S. Death-Row Population
The number of people on death row or facing capital resentencing in the United States has continued its 19-year decline, according to a new death-row census by…
Read MoreNews & Developments
May 09, 2019
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Ban on Unconstitutional Conditions on Virginia Death Row
A federal appeals court has declared that Virginia for many years housed its death-row prisoners in unconstitutional conditions and has barred the state from reverting to its prior practices. On May 3, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourt…
Dec 24, 2018
A Special DPIC What's New—Christmas Memories from Death Row Forty Christmases Later
Death-row exoneree Ron Keine (pictured) reflects on spending the holidays on death row: It is Christmas time on the row. At night I can hear the muffled sounds of a grown man crying in his pillow. His trusty pillow which…
Dec 21, 2018
NEW PODCAST: DPIC’s 2018 Year End Report
In the latest podcast episode of Discussions with DPIC, members of the DPIC staff discuss key themes from the …
Sep 20, 2018
DEATH-ROW CENSUS: Number of Prisoners Facing Active Death Sentences in U.S. Drops Below 2,500
For the first time in more than a quarter century, fewer than 2,500 prisoners across the United States now face active death sentences. According to the latest Death Row USA national census by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), released in early …
Sep 18, 2018
Death Off the Table for Four Former Death-Row Prisoners, as Death Row Continues to Shrink Nationwide
In a period of less than one week, four former death-row prisoners in four separate states learned that they no longer face execution, contributing to the continuing decline in the number of people on death rows across the U.S. The result of the u…
May 08, 2018
NEW RESOURCES: BJS Releases “Capital Punishment, 2016”
The nation’s death rows continue to shrink more rapidly than new defendants are being sentenced to death, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) statistical brief, “Capital Punishment, 2016,” released April 30, 2018. …
Apr 20, 2018
Aging of Death Row Raises Humanitarian and Practical Concerns, As Alabama Executes 83-Year Old Prisoner
Death row is aging and increasingly infirm and, as a series of recent death warrants suggest, that phenomenon is raising legal, practical, and humanitarian concerns. One year after executing 75-year-old Thomas Arthur, Alab…
Mar 01, 2018
Virginia Death-Row Prisoners Win “Landmark” Prison Conditions Lawsuit
In what lawyers for Virginia death-row prisoners have called “a landmark ruling,” a federal judge has issued an injunction barring the Commonwealth from subjecting prisoners who have been sentenced to death to automatic solitary c…
Feb 12, 2018
Pennsylvania Death-Row Prisoners File Lawsuit Challenging Automatic, Permanent Solitary Confinement
Five prisoners on death row in Pennsylvania have filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the Commonwealth’s policy mandating solitary confinement for all condemned prisoners. The five named plaintiffs have been held in solitary c…
Dec 04, 2017
Lawsuit: Nebraska Vote to Restore Death Penalty Does Not Apply to Those Previously Sentenced to Death
The ALCU of Nebraska, the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, and the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, LLP, have filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state’s eleven death-sentenced prisoners seeking to bar Nebraska “from …
