Intrigued by a book...

soooo... I was browsing the library in our house and happened upon quite an interesting book.
I became more than a little intrigued...
The book: Live From Death Row
The author Mumia Abu-Jamas
...It is a kind of behind the scenes view of prison life... on death row. How death row inmates were not "doing time", as other prison inmates are, their "freedom does not shine at the end of the tunnel." They are pretty much bodies that are kept alive to be killed. 'They are, in fact, the best behaved and least disruptive inmates. To put in perspective though, they do spend 22 hours of every day locked in a 6-by-10 foot cell. The other 2 hours are spent outside...in a cage that is ringed in double-edged razor wire under the watchful eye of gun turrets.
TV is allowed, but no typewriters. Pretty much, inmates are have access to mind-numbing entertainment, but no expression. The tv is their only link to the real world, the outside world, the word they are not a part of anymore.
Most inmates have few, if any, visitors. The visits are strict no-contact visitations. By denying physical connection between the visitor and the inmate, the emotional connection wanes. This policy, the thick shatter-proof window that allows visitors to view the inmates... the prisoners become dead to the visitors long before they actually die.
Before inmates can even enter their room to begin the no-contact visitation, they are strip-searched. The prisoners are stripped down, naked... searched in their mouth, under their tongue, under and behind their balls, on the bottom of their feet and they are even asked to spread their "cheeks" (if you know what I mean)...Even though there are literally 3 inches of shatter-proof glass separating inmates from their visitors...
.... I was too distracted to read any more... and soon found myself scouring the internet...

Here are some interesting bits of information that I found...
HERE, I found a breakdown of the current Death Row population by race...

BLACK	1,397	41.7%
HISPANIC	359	10.7%
WHITE	1,517	45.3%
OTHER	77	2.3%

(Death Row Population Figures from NAACP-LDF "Death Row USA (January 1, 2007)"

STATES WITH THE DEATH PENALTY
Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Idaho Indiana Illinois 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 ALSO - U.S. Gov't - U.S. Military
STATES WITHOUT THE DEATH PENALTY
Alaska Hawaii Iowa Maine Massachusetts Michigan	Minnesota North Dakota New Jersey New York Rhode Island Vermont	West Virginia Wisconsin ALSO - Dist. of Columbia

SIZE OF DEATH ROW BY YEAR (1968 to the PRESENT)
1968	517	1976	420	1984	1,405	1992	2,575	2000	3,593
1969	575	1977	423	1985	1,591	1993	2,716	2001	3,581
1970	631	1978	482	1986	1,781	1994	2,890	2002	3,557
1971	642	1979	539	1987	1,984	1995	3,054	2003	3,374
1972	334	1980	691	1988	2,124	1996	3,219	2004	3,315
1973	134	1981	856	1989	2,250	1997	3,335	2005	3,254
1974	244	1982	1,050	1990	2,356	1998	3,452	2006*	3,344
1975	488	1983	1,209	1991	2,482	1999	3,527	2007*	3,350
Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics: "Capital Punishment" for Years 1968-2005 *NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. "Death Row USA"

As of January 1st, 2007... California has 660... Florida has 397... and Texas has 393

More information from DPIC (Death Penalty Information Center)

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2007 REPORT

Executions for the year: 42 - lowest in 13 years

% Executions in Texas: 62%
% Executions in South: 86%

Death sentences: 110 projected - lowest in 30 years
Exonerations: 3 - in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and North Carolina
Commutations: 11 - including 1 in Texas and 8 in New Jersey
New States without the death penalty: New Jersey and New York - bringing total to 14 states