The percentage of Americans who find the death penalty morally unacceptable has risen to 39%, while the percentage who find it acceptable has fallen to a record low, according to a new poll released by Gallup on June 9, 2026. A slight majority (52%) of respondents to Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs poll said that they still consider the death penalty morally acceptable, down from the previous record-low of 54% in the organization’s 2020 survey. Support has fallen drastically in the last two decades, from a high of 71% of respondents in 2006, and has fallen 4 percentage points from the level of acceptability reported in the 2025 Values and Beliefs poll. The percentage of Americans who consider the death penalty morally unacceptable is just one percentage point below the record high (40%) documented in 2020 and 2021. Support for the death penalty was lower among those who identified as Democrats (33%) than those who identified as Independent (54%) or Republican (76%).
The poll, administered from May 1 – 17, 2026, asked respondents about the moral acceptability of 19 social issues, from abortion, birth control, and extramarital relations to doctor-assisted suicide, gambling, and cloning humans.
“Over the past two decades, Americans have grown generally more accepting of most of the behaviors measured by Gallup, which include those associated with sex, marriage, and certain medical and end-of-life issues,” Gallup research consultant Megan Brenan said. “However, this trend toward more permissive attitudes has largely plateaued or pulled back in recent years, though acceptance levels on most behaviors remain higher than they were 25 years ago.”
The poll’s results are consistent with other polling on the death penalty, which has shown a dramatic decline in support since the late 1990s. Gallup’s 2025 poll on the death penalty found a five-decade low of 52% of Americans favor the death penalty. This marks the lowest level of support for the death penalty since 1972, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated capital punishment statutes nationwide, when only half of respondents were in favor of the death penalty.
Megan Brenan, Moral Acceptability Falls for Several Behaviors, Gallup, June 9, 2026.
