“In 82% of the stud­ies [reviewed], race of the vic­tim was found to influ­ence the like­li­hood of being charged with cap­i­tal mur­der or receiv­ing the death penal­ty, i.e., those who mur­dered whites were found more like­ly to be sen­tenced to death than those who mur­dered blacks.”

Race of Defendants Executed in the U.S. Since 1976



Race Number Percentage Black 517 33.9% Latinx 129 8.5% White 852 55.9% Other 26 1.7%

NOTE: The federal government counts some categories, such as Hispanics, as an ethnic group rather than a race. DPIC refers to all groups as races because the sources for much of our information use these categories.

Race of Victims Since 1976

Race Number Percentage Black 339 15.3% Latinx 155 6.9% White 1676 75.6% Other 48 2.2%

NOTE: Number of Victims refers to the victims in the underlying murder in cases where an execution has occurred since the restoration of the death penalty in 1976. There are more victims than executions because some cases involve more than one victim.

Race of Victim Figures up to 4/1/2020 from NAACP-LDF “Death Row USA” (April 1, 2020) in addition to DPIC data.