The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund recent­ly released its Fall 2009 edi­tion of Death Row USA, a report detail­ing death row pop­u­la­tions across the United States. According to the report, California, Florida and Texas con­tin­ue to lead the nation in the num­ber of death row inmates, with California (694) hav­ing a death row pop­u­la­tion almost twice as large as either Florida (395) or Texas (339). In addi­tion, while Florida’s and Texas’ death row pop­u­la­tions have declined in the last decade, California’s pop­u­la­tion has grown steadi­ly, from 551 inmates in 1999 to 694 in 2009. California has not had an exe­cu­tion since 2006. Overall, the coun­try’s death row pop­u­la­tion decreased since Death Row USA’s report of July 1, 2009 – from 3,279 to 3,263 as of Oct. 1. View the full report here.

The report also con­tains infor­ma­tion on exe­cu­tions, rel­e­vant Supreme Court cas­es, and the racial break­down of exe­cu­tions and death rows for all states and the fed­er­al sys­tem. Currently, about 44% of those on death row are white, 42% are black, and 12% are Latino. Among juris­dic­tions with more than 10 inmates on death row, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas have the high­est per­cent­age (69%) of minori­ties on death row. 

(NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, ​“Death Row U.S.A. Fall 2009” (pub. April 2010)). See also Death Row and Race.

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