A major­i­ty of Americans pre­fer life with­out parole to the death penal­ty, accord­ing to the 2015 American Values Survey by the Public Religion Research Institute. The poll of 2,695 Americans found that 52% pre­ferred life with­out parole, while 47% pre­ferred the death penal­ty. The poll found that respon­dents’ views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment tracked their views about racial jus­tice and dif­fered great­ly by race. 53% of all Americans agreed with the state­ment, ​“A black per­son is more like­ly than a white per­son to receive the death penal­ty for the same crime,” while 45% dis­agreed. But 82% of blacks and 59% of Hispanics agreed with the state­ment, while few­er than half (45%) of whites agreed. Only 37% of those who saw racial dis­par­i­ties in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, while the death penal­ty drew sup­port from 59% of those who dis­agreed that blacks were more like­ly than whites to receive death sen­tences. White Americans’ views on this ques­tion dif­fered great­ly by social class, with 54% of col­lege-edu­cat­ed whites say­ing blacks were more like­ly than whites to receive the death penal­ty and 58% of white work­ing-class Americans say­ing this was not the case. Views about the per­ceived fair­ness of the death penal­ty also split sharply along par­ti­san lines. 64% of Republicans dis­agreed with the state­ment on racial dis­par­i­ties, as com­pared to 28% of Democrats. Independents were even­ly divid­ed. Overall, about two-thirds (65%) of Democrats said they pre­ferred life with­out parole, while 67% of Republicans said they pre­ferred the death penalty. 

(“Survey|Anxiety, Nostalgia, and Mistrust: Findings from the 2015 American Values Survey,” Public Religion Research Institute, November 17, 2015; Full Report; News Release.) See Public Opinion and Race.

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