The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund​’s ​“Death Row USA” showed a slight increase of 9 inmates in the death row pop­u­la­tion in the United States between October 1, 2010 and January 1, 2011. However, death row is still sig­nif­i­cant­ly small­er now (3,251 inmates) than in 2000 (3,682 inmates). The size of death row also declined over­all in 2010. The size of death row is affect­ed by the num­ber of death sen­tences and the num­ber of exe­cu­tions. Nationally, the racial com­po­si­tion of those on death row is 44% white, 42% black, and 12% Latino/​Latina. Texas, Louisiana, and Connecticut had death rows con­sist­ing of 70% minor­i­ty defen­dants. California con­tin­ues to have the largest death row pop­u­la­tion (721), fol­lowed by Florida (398), Texas (321), Pennsylvania (219), and Alabama (206). California and Pennsylvania have not car­ried out an exe­cu­ti­ion in over five years. The report con­tains the lat­est death row pop­u­la­tion fig­ures, exe­cu­tion sta­tis­tics, and an overview of recent legal devel­op­ments relat­ed to capital punishment.

(NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ​“Death Row USA,” January 1, 2011, post­ed September 7, 2011). See also Death Row and Studies.

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