A recent Harris Interactive poll of over 1,000 American adults found that the num­ber of peo­ple who oppose the death penal­ty has increased since 2003. Thirty-per­cent (30%) of those sam­pled oppose the death penal­ty, an increase of 8 per­cent­age points in the past 5 years. The per­cent­age of respon­dents who ​“believe in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment” has dropped sig­nif­i­cant­ly since 1997, when 75% sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. In 2008, that num­ber had declined to 63%, the low­est num­ber in recent years.

The poll also found that 52% of Americans do not believe that the death penal­ty deters oth­ers from com­mit­ting mur­der. Likewise, 95% of those polled stat­ed that they believe that some­times inno­cent peo­ple are con­vict­ed of mur­der. Among this group, 58% said they would then oppose the death penal­ty based upon the knowl­edge that some inno­cent peo­ple are con­vict­ed of mur­der. This rep­re­sents a strong increase since the year 2000, when only 36% said that cas­es of inno­cence would lead them to oppose the death penalty.

(“Over Three in Five Americans Believe in Death Penalty,” Harris Interactive, BusinessWire, March 18, 2008). See Public Opinion and Deterrence.




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