NEW RESOURCE: "Death Row USA" Winter 2007 Report Now Available

NEW RESOURCE: "Death Row USA" Winter 2007 Report Now Available

The latest edition of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's "Death Row, USA" reports that the number of people on death row in the United States rose slightly to 3,350 as of January 1, 2007, an increase of 6 inmates from October 1, 2006, but a decline of 23 inmates from a year ago.

The slight increase appears to be partly the result of the relatively few executions in the last quarter of 2006. California (660), Florida (397), and Texas (393) continued to have the largest death row populations.

The latest edition of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's "Death Row, USA" reports that the number of people on death row in the United States rose slightly to 3,350 as of January 1, 2007, an increase of 6 inmates from October 1, 2006, but a decline of 23 inmates from a year ago. The slight increase appears to be partly the result of the relatively few executions in the last quarter of 2006. California (660), Florida (397), and Texas (393) continued to have the largest death row populations.

Nationally, the racial composition of those on death row is 45% white, 42% black, and 11% Latino/Latina. Of jurisdictions with more than 10 people on death row, Texas and Pennsylvania continue to have the largest percentage of minorities on death row, 69% and 70% respectively. Nearly 80% of the murder victims in the crimes that resulted in executions were white. (Generally, only about 48% of murder victims are white.)

"Death Row, USA" is published quarterly and contains the names and race of everyone on death row, execution statistics, and an overview of recent Supreme Court decisions related to capital punishment.

(NAACP Legal Defense Fund, "Death Row, USA, Winter 2007", January 1, 2007. See Death Row and DPIC's 2006 Year End Report for a discussion of the overall decline in the use of the death penalty.