The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Death Row, USA shows the total death row pop­u­la­tion con­tin­u­ing to decline in size. The U.S. death-row pop­u­la­tion decreased from 3,108 on April 1, 2013, to 3,095 on July 1, 2013. The new total rep­re­sent­ed a 12% decrease from 10 years ear­li­er, when the death row pop­u­la­tion was 3,517. The states with the largest death rows were California (733), Florida (412), Texas (292), Pennsylvania (197), and Alabama (197). In the past 10 years, the size of Texas’s death row has shrunk 36%; Pennsylvania’s death row has declined 18%; on the oth­er hand, California’s death row has increased 17% in that time. The report also con­tains racial break­downs on death row. The states with the high­est per­cent­age of minori­ties on death row were Delaware (78%) and Texas (71%), among those states with at least 10 inmates. The total death row pop­u­la­tion was 43% white, 42% black, 13% Latino, and 2% other races.

(NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ​“Death Row, USA,” July 1, 2013; DPIC post­ed March 6, 2014). See Death Row and Studies.

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