The latest edition of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s “Death Row USA” shows that the number of people on the death row in the United States is continuing to decline, falling to 3,366 as of July 1, 2006. The size of death row increased every year between 1976 and 2000, but since then it has been in a slow decline.
Nationally, the racial composition of those on death row is 45% white, 42% black, and 11% latino/latina. Of jurisdictions with more than 10 people on death row, Texas (69%) and Pennsylvania (70%) continue to have the largest percentage of minorites on death row. Nearly 80% of the victims in crimes that resulted in executions were white.
California, with 657 inmates, and Texas, with 401 inmates, have the largest death row populations in the country. New Hampshire has no one on death row.
Death Row USA is published quarterly by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The report contains the latest death row population figures, execution statistics, and an overview of the most recent legal developments related to capital punishment.
(NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Death Row USA: July 1, 2006.) See also DPIC’s Death Row.
Studies
Feb 28, 2023
