The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Death Row, USA showed a con­tin­u­ing decline in the size of the death row pop­u­la­tion. The new total of 3,035 rep­re­sent­ed a 13% drop from 10 years ear­li­er, when the death row pop­u­la­tion was 3,471. The racial demo­graph­ics of death row have been steady, with white inmates mak­ing up 43% of death row, black inmates com­pos­ing 42%, and Latino inmates 13%. California con­tin­ued to have the largest death row, with 745 inmates, fol­lowed by Florida (404), Texas (276), Alabama (198), and Pennsylvania (188). Arkansas, which last car­ried out an exe­cu­tion near­ly nine years ago, had a 13% decrease in its death row pop­u­la­tion since last year. The report also con­tains infor­ma­tion about exe­cu­tions. Since 1976, 10% (143) of those exe­cut­ed were defen­dants who gave up their appeals.

(NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ​“Death Row, USA,” October 1, 2014; DPIC post­ed November 4, 2014). See Death Row and Studies.

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