A new poll by Quinnipiac has found that more Americans pre­fer life with­out parole (48%) than the death penal­ty (43%) for peo­ple con­vict­ed of mur­der. Since Quinnipiac last asked the ques­tion in 2013, sup­port for life with­out parole has risen by five per­cent­age points and dropped for the death penal­ty by five points. A June 2014 ABC News/​Washington Post poll also showed that more Americans pre­ferred life with­out parole to the death penal­ty. Quinnipiac found that 58% of Americans say they sup­port the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of ter­ror­ism, but that num­ber also has dropped five points since 2013. 62% of respon­dents indi­cat­ed that they pre­ferred the death penal­ty for Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as con­trast­ed with just 33% of Boston res­i­dents favor­ing death. By com­par­i­son, in 1997, 68% of Americans said that Timothy McVeigh should have received the death penal­ty after his con­vic­tion for the Oklahoma City bomb­ing. (Click image to enlarge.)

(“U.S. Voters Back Supreme Court Ok For Gay Marriage, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Less Support For Death Penalty — Except For Terrorism,” Quinnipiac, June 1, 2015.) See Public Opinion.

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