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.
