Gallup recent­ly released its Values and Beliefs sur­vey regard­ing American moral views on a vari­ety of social issues. The results revealed a sig­nif­i­cant decline in the per­cent­age of the pub­lic that finds the death penal­ty ​“moral­ly accept­able.” This year, only 58% of respon­dents said the death penal­ty is moral­ly accept­able, down from 65% last year. (Click on graph to enlarge.) This marks the low­est approval rat­ing for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment since this sur­vey was first admin­is­tered 12 years ago. Among Democrats, only 42% found the death penal­ty moral­ly accept­able. Generally, sup­port for the death penal­ty falls below 50% when the pub­lic is offered alter­na­tive pun­ish­ments. In 2010, Gallup asked which is the bet­ter pun­ish­ment for mur­der: the death penal­ty or life in prison with­out parole? Less than half (49%) chose the death penal­ty, while 46% chose life without parole.

This sur­vey is dif­fer­ent from the annu­al poll mea­sur­ing death penal­ty sup­port regard­less of moral val­ues. In its gen­er­al 2011 sur­vey, Gallup found 61% of respon­dents sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, down from 80% sup­port in 1994. The 2011 result marked the low­est lev­el of sup­port for the death penal­ty in 39 years. Results for the Values and Beliefs Gallup poll were based on 1,024 tele­phone inter­views con­duct­ed May 3 – 6, 2012.

(F. Newport, ​“Americans, Including Catholics, Say Birth Control Is Morally OK,” Gallup, May 22, 2012). See Public Opinion.

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