We’re getting information now about how the death penalty and capital punishment fared in 2014.   The first quarterly report from the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund has been released.

 

 

image: Cell on Florida’s Death Row

U.S. Death Row Populations: Most in California, 43% White

From it, we now have statistical confirmation that there were less people on death row last year.  Across the nation, the death row population decreased by 12%.  There were around 3000 people on Death Row at the end of 2014, around 450 less than the previous year.

The report shows that of these Death Row inmates, 43% are white; 42% are black; and 13% are Latino/Latina.  

Florida continues to have the largest Death Row population in the country, second only to California, with 403 inmates (California has 743).  Texas is third with 276 people living on its Death Row.  

To read the entire report, go here.  

Death Row and Executions

One thing to point out here:  in the top three listed above, both Florida and Texas are high with the number of Death Row inmates and both these states are active in executing people and carrying out capital punishment sentences.  

Not so, California.

One reason that California is number one in Death Row population statistics is that California isn’t executing people like Florida, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, etc.  Instead, the population on the California Death Row grows.

So much so, in fact, that the state has run out of room.  To keep doing what its doing, California will have to spend cash to expand its Death Row facilities.  See the recent Los Angeles Times story for details, "California’s death row, with no executions in sight, runs out of room."