Race of Death Row Inmates Executed Since 1976

National Statistics on the Death Penalty and Race

Execution information accurate as of December 12, 2018 following an execution in Texas.

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

Race	Number	Percentage
Black	509	34.5%
Latino	126	8.3%
White	830	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	153	6.9%
White	1649	75.6%
Other	46	2.3%

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 4/1/2018 from NAACP-LDF "Death Row USA (April 1, 2018)" 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 (290)

Executions for Interracial Murders

Current U.S. Death Row Population by Race

Race	Number	Percentage
Black	1135	41.38%
Latino	368	13.42%
White	1153	42.03%
Other	82	2.99%

Death Row Population Figures from NAACP-LDF "Death Row USA (July 1, 2018)"

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

State	Total	Black	White	Latino	Native Amer.	Asian	Unknown
Alabama	185	97	85	2	0	1	0
Arizona	121	18	71	25	4	3	0
Arkansas	31	17	13	1	0	0	0
California	740	267	245	189	10	29	0
Colorado	3	3	0	0	0	0	0
Florida	353	135	190	25	1	2	0
Georgia	56	30	23	3	0	0	0
Idaho	9	0	9	0	0	0	0
Indiana	12	3	9	0	0	0	0
Kansas	10	3	7	0	0	0	0
Kentucky	32	5	27	0	0	0	0
Louisiana	71	47	20	3	0	1	0
Mississippi	47	24	21	1	0	1	0
Missouri	25	7	18	0	0	0	0
Montana	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
Nebraska	12	3	4	5	0	0	0
Nevada	75	27	36	10	0	2	0
New Hampshire	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
New Mexico	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
North Carolina	144	76	55	5	7	1	0
Ohio	144	80	59	3	0	2	0
Oklahoma	49	22	22	2	3	0	0
Oregon*	33	2	26	3	1	0	1
Pennsylvania	160	86	57	14	0	3	0
South Carolina	39	21	17	1	0	0	0
South Dakota	3	0	3	0	0	0	0
Tennessee	62	29	30	1	0	2	0
Texas	232	99	62	66	0	5	0
Utah	9	1	5	2	1	0	0
Virginia	3	2	1	0	0	0	0
Washington	8	3	5	0	0	0	0
Wyoming	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
US Gov’t	63	26	28	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 2,738 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, 2018)"

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