Race of Death Row Inmates Executed Since 1976

National Statistics on the Death Penalty and Race

Execution information accurate as of March 1, 2019 following an execution in Texas.

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

Race	Number	Percentage
Black	511	34.5%
Latino	127	8.3%
White	831	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	335	15.3%
Latino	153	6.9%
White	1653	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	1130	41.53%
Latino	366	13.45%
White	1144	42.04%
Other	82	2.97%

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

Current Death Row Populations by Race
as of October 1, 2018

State	Total	Black	White	Latino	Native Amer.	Asian	Unknown
Alabama	182	94	85	2	0	1	0
Arizona	121	18	71	25	4	3	0
Arkansas	32	17	14	1	0	0	0
California	740	267	245	189	10	29	0
Colorado	3	3	0	0	0	0	0
Florida	354	134	193	24	1	2	0
Georgia	56	30	23	3	0	0	0
Idaho	9	0	9	0	0	0	0
Indiana	11	3	8	0	0	0	0
Kansas	10	3	7	0	0	0	0
Kentucky	31	5	26	0	0	0	0
Louisiana	70	46	20	3	0	1	0
Mississippi	46	25	19	1	0	1	0
Missouri	25	7	18	0	0	0	0
Montana	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
Nebraska	12	3	3	6	0	0	0
Nevada	76	28	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	143	76	54	5	7	1	0
Ohio	142	80	57	3	0	2	0
Oklahoma	48	22	21	2	3	0	0
Oregon*	33	2	26	3	1	0	1
Pennsylvania	158	85	56	14	0	3	0
South Carolina	39	21	17	1	0	0	0
South Dakota	3	0	3	0	0	0	0
Tennessee	61	29	29	1	0	2	0
Texas	228	98	62	64	0	4	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	62	26	27	7	1	1	0
US Military	4	2	2	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 (October 1, 2018)"

908326 reads