The NAACP Legal Defense Fund reports that America’s death rows have con­tin­ued to decline in size, with 2,905 men and women on death row across the United States as of July 1, 2016. The new fig­ures, report­ed in the orga­ni­za­tion’s Summer 2016 edi­tion of its quar­ter­ly pub­li­ca­tion, Death Row USA, rep­re­sent a 14% decline from the 3,366 pris­on­ers who were on death row one decade ear­li­er. The shrink­ing of death row pop­u­la­tions across the coun­try has exceed­ed the num­ber of exe­cu­tions dur­ing that peri­od, mean­ing that more pris­on­ers have been removed from death row as a result of hav­ing their con­vic­tions or death sen­tences over­turned than have been added to the row with new­ly death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers. The nation’s largest death row states remain: California (741), Florida (396), Texas (254), Alabama (194), and Pennsylvania (175). Nationwide, 42.34% of death row inmates are White, 41.79% are Black, 13.08% are Latino/​a, and 2.78% are oth­er races, but racial make­up varies by state. Among the most racial­ly-dis­pro­por­tion­ate death row pop­u­la­tions are Delaware (78% minori­ties), Texas (73% minori­ties), Louisiana (70% minori­ties), Nebraska (70% minori­ties), and California (66% minori­ties). Only 55 death row pris­on­ers (1.89%) are women. 

(NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ​“Death Row USA, Summer 2016,” July 1, 2016; DPIC post­ed October 5, 2016.) See Death Row and Studies.

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