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.

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