The latest edition of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Death Row USA showed a continuing decline in the number of people on death rows across the country. As of January 1, 2014, there were 3,070 inmates on death row, a decrease of 55 from one year earlier. California continued to have the largest death row, with 742 inmates. Since 2000, the national death row population has decreased by 16%. Texas, which had the second largest death row in 2000, has seen a 39% drop, from 455 to 278. California has had an increase of 29%, from 576 to 742, making it an outlier as the overall death row numbers have dropped. Over 76% of the murder victims in cases resulting in an execution since 1976 were white, even though nationally, about 50% of murder victims are black. Since 1976, 273 black defendants have been executed for the murder of a white victim, while only 20 white defendants have been executed for the murder of a black victim.
(NAACP Legal Defense Fund, “Death Row USA,” January 1, 2014, posted July 3, 2014). See also Death Row and Studies. Listen to DPIC’s podcast about death row.
