Race of Death Row Inmates Executed Since 1976

National Statistics on the Death Penalty and Race

Execution information accurate as of May 17, 2018 following an execution in Texas.

Race of Defendants Executed in the U.S. Since 1976

Race	Number	Percentage
Black	507	34.5%
Latino	124	8.3%
White	821	55.6%
Other	24	1.6%

NOTE: The federal government counts some categories, such as Hispanics, as an ethnic group rather than a race. DPIC refers to all groups as races because the sources for much of our information use these categories.

race chart 1

Race of Victims Since 1976

Race	Number	Percentage
Black	333	15.3%
Latino	152	6.9%
White	1635	75.6%
Other	45	2.1%

NOTE: Number of Victims refers to the victims in the underlying murder in cases where an execution has occurred since the restoration of the death penalty in 1976. There are more victims than executions because some cases involve more than one victim.

Race of Victim Figures up to 7/1/2016 from NAACP-LDF "Death Row USA (July 1, 2016)" in addition to DPIC data.

race chart 2

"In 82% of the studies [reviewed], race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e., those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks."
- United States General Accounting Office, Death Penalty Sentencing, February 1990

Persons Executed for Interracial Murders in the U.S. Since 1976

The cases represented here are cases of one defendant executed for the murder of one or more victims of one race. Cases involving multiple victims of several different races are not included here.

White Defendant / Black Victim (20)

Black Defendant / White Victim (289)

Executions for Interracial Murders

Current U.S. Death Row Population by Race

Race	Number	Percentage
Black	1168	41.8%
Latino	373	13.24%
White	1196	42.46%
Other	80	2.84%

Death Row Population Figures from NAACP-LDF "Death Row USA (July 1, 2017)"

Current Death Row Populations by Race
as of July 1, 2017

State	Total	Black	White	Latino	Native Amer.	Asian	Unknown
Alabama	191	101	87	2	0	1	0
Arizona	125	17	75	27	3	3	0
Arkansas	32	17	14	1	0	0	0
California	746	270	249	188	10	29	0
Colorado	3	3	0	0	0	0	0
Florida	374	142	202	27	1	2	0
Georgia	61	32	26	3	0	0	0
Idaho	8	0	8	0	0	0	0
Indiana	12	3	9	0	0	0	0
Kansas	10	3	7	0	0	0	0
Kentucky	33	5	28	0	0	0	0
Louisiana	73	48	21	3	0	1	0
Mississippi	48	25	21	1	0	1	0
Missouri	24	8	16	0	0	0	0
Montana	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
Nebraska	11	3	3	5	0	0	0
Nevada	82	30	40	10	0	2	0
New Hampshire	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
New Mexico	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
North Carolina	152	78	61	5	7	1	0
Ohio	144	79	60	3	0	2	0
Oklahoma	47	21	22	2	2	0	0
Oregon*	33	2	26	3	1	0	1
Pennsylvania	169	90	61	15	0	3	0
South Carolina	41	22	18	1	0	0	0
South Dakota	3	0	3	0	0	0	0
Tennessee	62	29	30	1	0	2	0
Texas	243	106	65	67	0	5	0
Utah	9	1	5	2	1	0	0
Virginia	5	2	3	0	0	0	0
Washington	8	3	5	0	0	0	0
Wyoming	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
US Gov’t	61	26	26	7	1	1	0
US Military	5	2	3	0	0	0	0

* One member of Death Row's race is not currently identified

(In this table, the total of inmates on death row will be slightly higher than the national total of 2,817 because some inmates were sentenced to death in more than one state and hence will be counted twice.)

Figures from NAACP-LDF "Death Row USA (July 1, 2017)"

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