The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund​’s ​“Death Row USA” showed a decrease of 29 inmates in the death row pop­u­la­tion between January 1 and April 1, 2011. The total pop­u­la­tion of state and fed­er­al death rows is sig­nif­i­cant­ly small­er now (3,222 inmates) than in 2000 (3,682 inmates). The size of death row is affect­ed by the num­ber of death sen­tences, the num­ber of exe­cu­tions, and the num­ber of sen­tence rever­sals. Nationally, the racial com­po­si­tion of those on death row is 44% white, 42% black, and 12% Latino/​Latina. California con­tin­ues to have the largest death row pop­u­la­tion (717), fol­lowed by Florida (400), Texas (321), Pennsylvania (219), and Alabama (206). Neither California nor Pennsylvania have car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in the past six years. The report also con­tains infor­ma­tion on the race and gen­der of the vic­tims in the under­ly­ing mur­ders for those exe­cut­ed and an overview of recent legal devel­op­ments relat­ed to capital punishment.

(NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ​“Death Row USA,” April 1, 2011, post­ed January 6, 2012). See also Death Row and Studies.

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