Race of Death Row Inmates Executed Since 1976

National Statistics on the Death Penalty and Race

Execution information accurate as of December 7, 2018 following an execution in Tennessee.

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

Race	Number	Percentage
Black	508	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	1648	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 (289)

Executions for Interracial Murders

Current U.S. Death Row Population by Race

Race	Number	Percentage
Black	1143	41.67%
Latino	366	13.34%
White	1153	42.03%
Other	81	2.95%

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

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

State	Total	Black	White	Latino	Native Amer.	Asian	Unknown
Alabama	188	99	86	2	0	1	0
Arizona	121	17	72	25	4	3	0
Arkansas	31	17	13	1	0	0	0
California	740	267	246	188	10	29	0
Colorado	3	3	0	0	0	0	0
Florida	354	137	190	24	1	2	0
Georgia	58	31	24	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	33	5	28	0	0	0	0
Louisiana	70	47	19	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	11	3	3	5	0	0	0
Nevada	77	27	37	11	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	141	79	57	3	0	2	0
Oklahoma	49	23	22	2	2	0	0
Oregon*	33	2	26	3	1	0	1
Pennsylvania	160	87	56	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	235	102	63	65	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	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 2,743 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 (April 1, 2018)"

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