(Click image to enlarge) Polls released this week by Pew Research Center and CBS News show that pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty has declined to near his­toric lows. Both polls report­ed that 56% of Americans sup­port the death penal­ty. That is the low­est lev­el of sup­port ever record­ed by the CBS News poll, and near the low­est lev­el report­ed by Pew in the last 40 years. The Pew poll exam­ined lev­els of sup­port by polit­i­cal par­ty and found that the decline in sup­port for the death penal­ty is par­tic­u­lar­ly strik­ing among Democrats, with just 40% say­ing they sup­port it now, com­pared to 71% who did in 1996. While 63% viewed the death penal­ty as a moral­ly jus­ti­fied pun­ish­ment for mur­der, most (71%), said there is some risk of exe­cut­ing inno­cent peo­ple, and 61% said they do not believe it deters seri­ous crimes. Support for the death penal­ty is low­est among racial minori­ties (34% of blacks and 45% of Hispanics sup­port it), women (49%), and Catholics (53%). Large drops in sup­port for the death penal­ty between 2011 and 2015 were report­ed among lib­er­al Democrats (11 per­cent­age points), women (10 points), those under age 30 (8 points), and con­ser­v­a­tive Republicans (7 points).

(“Less Support for Death Penalty, Especially Among Democrats,” Pew Research Center, April 16, 2015; S. Dutton, J. de Pinto, A. Salvanto, and F. Backus, ​“Americans weigh in on death penal­ty for Marathon bomber,” CBS News, April 15, 2015.) See Public Opinion.

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