According to the lat­est edi­tion of Death Row U.S.A. pub­lished by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), the size of death row decreased slight­ly as of July 1, 2008 com­pared to Jan. 1. After increas­ing steadi­ly for about 25 years, the death row pop­u­la­tion start­ed decreas­ing in 2000. The cur­rent total of defen­dants on state and fed­er­al death rows is 3,307, of whom 45% are white, 41.6% are black, and 11% are Latino/​Latina. Over 98% of those on death row are male. The states with the largest death rows are California (662), Florida (399), Texas (367), and Pennsylvania (226). Among states with at least 10 peo­ple on death row, Texas, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania have the high­est per­cent­age of minori­ties among those on death row – 70%, 70%, and 69% respec­tive­ly. The full report can be read here.

(NCAAP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, ​“Death Row USA: Summer 2008”, July 1, 2008). See DPIC’s Death Row page.

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