According to the latest figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Hispanics represent a larger proportion of those on death row than in the past. Hispanics constituted almost 20% of the new admissions to death row in 2009 (18 new inmates). Half of the new Hispanic death row inmates were from California, bringing their total to 157 Hispanic inmates, the most in the country. Hispanics now represent 13.5% of the U.S. death row population. In 2000, they made up 11% of death row. Of the executions carried out in 2009, 13% (7 out of 52, correcting earlier number) were of Hispanic inmates. All of the executions of Hispanics occurred in the South. In federal statistics, Hispanics are counted as an ethnic group, rather than as a racial group.
(Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Capital Punishment 2009,” U.S. Department of Justice, 2010). See Race and Studies.
