The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund​’s ​“Death Row USA” shows that the num­ber of peo­ple on the death row in the United States is con­tin­u­ing to slow­ly decline, falling to 3,260 as of April 1, 2010. In 2000, there were 3,682 inmates on death row. Nationally, the racial com­po­si­tion of those on death row is 44% white, 41% black, and 12% Latino/​Latina. California con­tin­ues to have the largest death row pop­u­la­tion (702), fol­lowed by Florida (398) and Texas (333). Pennsylvania (222) and Alabama (204) com­plete the list of the states with the five largest death rows in the coun­try. Of those juris­dic­tions with more than 10 inmates on death row, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas have the largest per­cent­age of minori­ties on death row – each has 69%.

Death Row USA is pub­lished quar­ter­ly by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The report con­tains the lat­est death row pop­u­la­tion fig­ures, exe­cu­tion sta­tis­tics, and an overview of recent legal devel­op­ments relat­ed to capital punishment.

(NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ​“Death Row USA,” April 1, 2010, post­ed April 28, 2011). See also Death Row and Race. Almost 78% of those exe­cut­ed since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed were guilty of killing a white per­son, even though whites are vic­tims in only about 49% of the murders.

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