09 September 2017 :

"Death Row USA Spring 2017" Shows Ongoing Decline in Death Row Populations. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund reports that America's death rows have continued to decline in size, with 2,843 men and women on death row across the United States as of April 1, 2017. The new figures, reported in the organization's new edition of its quarterly publication, Death Row USA, represent a 14,5% decline from the 3,350 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 (744), Florida (386), Texas (247), Alabama (193), Pennsylvania (169), North Carolina (154), Ohio (143) and Arizona (124). Nationwide, 42.38% of death row inmates are White, 41.65% are Black, 13.19% are Latino/a, and 2.78% are other races. Among the most racially-disproportionate death row populations are Texas (74% minorities), Louisiana (72% minorities), California (67% minorities), Pennsylvania (63%), North Carolina (60%), Federal Death Row and Ohio (58%), Mississippi (57%), South Carolina (57%), and Georgia (56%). Only 53 death row prisoners (1.89%) are women.