This week, a new study was released on the state of Death Row here in America, surveying both the various state death rows as well as federal.  Here are some interesting facts from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Death Row USA quarterly report, Spring 2012 edition:

  • there aren’t as many people awaiting execution – in 2000 there were 3682 and in 2012, there are 3170;
  • California has the most people setting on Death Row, Florida is second and Texas is third;
  • there are 61 women setting on Death Row today;
  • most people on Death Row are white (43.25%), and almost as many are African-American (41.80%);
  • under federal law, there is the possibility of capital punishment in courts of the:
    • U.S. Government; and
    • U.S. Military.
  • here are the states that have death penalty statutes in 2012:
    • Alabama,
    • Arizona,
    • Arkansas,
    • California,
    • Colorado,
    • Connecticut,
    • Delaware,
    • Florida,
    • Georgia,
    • Idaho,
    • Indiana,
    • Kansas,
    • Kentucky,
    • Louisiana,
    • Maryland,
    • Mississippi,
    • Missouri,
    • Montana,
    • Nebraska,
    • Nevada,
    • New Hampshire,
    • New Mexico*,
    • North Carolina,
    • Ohio,
    • Oklahoma,
    • Oregon,
    • Pennsylvania,
    • South Carolina,
    • South Dakota,
    • Tennessee,
    • Texas,
    • Utah,
    • Virginia,
    • Washington,
    • Wyoming.

*New Mexico repealed the death penalty prospectively. The two men already sentenced remain under sentence of death.

You can learn more about the NAACP Fund’s Death Row USA project, here.