USA: SUMMER 2016 ‘DEATH ROW USA’ SHOWS ONGOING DECLINE IN DEATH ROW POPULATIONS

October 5, 2016: 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. (Source: DPIC, 05/10/2016)