New National Poll Shows Decrease in Support for Capital Punishment

The Gallup Poll’s lat­est nation­al sur­vey of American opin­ion on the death penal­ty found that sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment dropped by 5 per­cent­age points from 2007, down to 64% sup­port from 69% last year. The pecen­t­age of those oppos­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment rose from 27% to 30%. This poll reflects that sup­port for the death penal­ty is equal to the low­est lev­el in the Gallup Polls dur­ing the past 30 years. Support had reached a high of 80% in 1994.

The last time Gallup asked respon­dents about alter­na­tives (which would be a bet­ter pun­ish­ment for mur­der, the death penal­ty or life in prison with absolute­ly no pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole) was in 2006. In that poll, more peo­ple sup­port­ed life in prison with­out parole (48%) than sup­port­ed the death penal­ty (47%).

(Gallup Poll, 2008 Oct 3 – 5, Death Penalty). See also Public Opinion.