The authors of a new study pub­lished in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (J. Blume, T. Eisenberg, & M. Wells, ​“Explaining Death Row’s Population and Racial Composition,” Vol. I, Issue 1, March 2004, at 165) con­clud­ed that Texas’ rep­u­ta­tion as the lead­ing death penal­ty state in the U.S. is attrib­ut­able more to its high num­ber of exe­cu­tions and the large num­ber of mur­ders in the state, rather than to its sen­tenc­ing rate. Despite lead­ing the coun­try by far in terms of num­ber of exe­cu­tions, Texas is about aver­age in death sen­tences when com­pared to its num­ber of mur­ders. Nevada and Oklahoma are the lead­ing states with the most death sen­tences per 1,000 mur­ders. With respect to race, the study found that the race of the vic­tim in the under­ly­ing mur­der is cru­cial in decid­ing who is sen­tenced to death. Across a spec­trum of states, a black per­son who mur­dered a white vic­tim is two and a half times as like­ly to be sen­tenced to death than a white who mur­dered a white vic­tim. (New York Times, February 14, 2004). Read the Study (PDF). See Resources, Race, and Executions.

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