PUBLIC OPINION: Support for Death Penalty Weak Among Blacks and Hispanics

According to new polling analysis from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, support for the death penalty among the general public has dropped to 62% (August 2007), down from a high of 80% support in the mid-1990s.  Among black respondents, 51% opposed the death penalty and only 40% were in favor.  Hispanics were about evenly split with 48% in favor of the death penalty and 47% opposed.  Eighty-two (82%) percent of conservative Republicans support the death penalty, but only 41% of liberal Democrats.  Among religious groups, white evangelical Protestants had the highest support--74%.
(See Pew Forum, December 19, 2007).  See Public Opinion.  In polls that ask respondents to compare the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole, support for the death penalty is considerably lower, and often below support for full life sentences.