The fact that there were more white people on death row in the United States in 2001 than all other racial groups combined seems to indicate that the death penalty is applied without regard to racial origins.

However, one must take into account that, according to the 2000 U.S. Census http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-1.pdf, 75.1 percent of Americans (211,460,626 people) identify themselves as white. People who identify themselves as African Americans account for only 12.3 percent of the population (34,658,190 people).

If the numbers for 2001 given above are correct, the number of white death row inmates is only about 25 percent higher than the number of African Americans sentenced to death, despite the white population being about six times larger than the African American population. So, statistically, an African American is more likely to be sent to death row than a white American.