According to the lat­est edi­tion of Death Row USA pub­lished by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), the size of death row decreased again as of April 1, 2005. After increas­ing steadi­ly for about 25 years, the death row pop­u­la­tion start­ed decreas­ing in 2000. The cur­rent total for state and fed­er­al death rows is 3,452. On October 1, 2002, LDF report­ed a death row pop­u­la­tion of 3,697. This lat­est report counts 72 offend­ers who were juve­niles at the time of their crime, though these indi­vid­u­als will all be removed from death row once offi­cial action has been tak­en in response to the Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Roper v. Simmons. Among states with at least 10 peo­ple on death row, Texas and Pennsylvania have the high­est per­cent­age of minori­ties among those on death row – 69% and 70% respec­tive­ly. See Death Row USA, Spring 2005 (April 1, 2005). See also DPIC’s Death Row page.

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