Death Penalty Information Center
The latest edition of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's Death Row USA shows a decrease of 52 inmates between January 1 and October 1, 2011. Over the last decade, the total population of state and federal death rows has decreased significantly, from 3,682 inmates in 2000 to 3,199 inmates as of October 2011. California continues to have the largest death row population (721), followed by Florida (402), Texas (317), Pennsylvania (213), and Alabama (204). Neither California nor Pennsylvania have carried out an execution in the past six years. The report also contains information on the race of defendants and victims in the underlying murders for those executed since 1976. Among those, there were 261 instances of a black defendant executed for the murder of a white victim (accounting for 20% of all executions since 1976). Conversely, there were only 17 instances where a white defendant was executed for the murder of a black victim.
In jurisdictions having 10 or more inmates on death row, the states with the highest percent of minorities on death row were:
- Texas (71%)
- Delaware (71%)
- Connecticut (70%)
- Louisiana (69%)
- Pennsylvania (69%)
(NAACP Legal Defense Fund, "Death Row USA," October 1, 2011, posted March 23, 2012). See also Death Row and Studies.
