The authors of a new study published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (J. Blume, T. Eisenberg, & M. Wells, “Explaining Death Row’s Population and Racial Composition,” Vol. I, Issue 1, March 2004, at 165) concluded that Texas’ reputation as the leading death penalty state in the U.S. is attributable more to its high number of executions and the large number of murders in the state, rather than to its sentencing rate. Despite leading the country by far in terms of number of executions, Texas is about average in death sentences when compared to its number of murders. Nevada and Oklahoma are the leading states with the most death sentences per 1,000 murders. With respect to race, the study found that the race of the victim in the underlying murder is crucial in deciding who is sentenced to death. Across a spectrum of states, a black person who murdered a white victim is two and a half times as likely to be sentenced to death than a white who murdered a white victim. (New York Times, February 14, 2004). Read the Study (PDF). See Resources, Race, and Executions.