Percentage of Americans Who View the Death Penalty as Morally Acceptable Remains Near Record Low

The per­cent­age of Americans who find the death penal­ty moral­ly accept­able remains near a record low, accord­ing to a new poll released by the Gallup orga­ni­za­tion on June 9, 2022. 55% of respon­dents to Gallup’s annu­al Values and Beliefs Survey told Gallup that they con­sid­er the death penal­ty moral­ly accept­able, frac­tion­al­ly above the record low of 54% in the orga­ni­za­tion’s 2020 sur­vey. The num­ber match­es the 55% lev­el of accept­abil­i­ty report­ed in the 2021 Values and Beliefs survey.

The poll, admin­is­tered from May 2 – 22, 2022, asked respon­dents about the moral accept­abil­i­ty of 19 social issues, from abor­tion, birth con­trol, and extra­mar­i­tal rela­tions, to physi­cian-assist­ed sui­cide, gam­bling, and wear­ing fur. (Click here to see an enlarged graph of poll results.) Fewer peo­ple have endorsed the moral accept­abil­i­ty of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the last three years than at any oth­er time in the 21-year his­to­ry of the sur­vey, and belief in the moral­i­ty of the death penal­ty is 16 per­cent­age points low­er than at its peak in 2006, when 71% said the death penal­ty was morally acceptable. 

“Over the past two decades, views of the moral­i­ty of most of the behav­iors tracked have become more per­mis­sive,” Gallup research con­sul­tant Megan Brenan said. ​“Notable excep­tions,” she said include Americans’ views on the death penal­ty and med­ical test­ing on animals. 

The per­cent­age of Americans who con­sid­er the death penal­ty moral­ly unac­cept­able was 38%, remain­ing near the record high of 40% set in 2020.

Support for the death penal­ty was low­er among those who iden­ti­fied as lib­er­al (40%) than those who iden­ti­fied as con­ser­v­a­tive (67%). While most of the social issues, such as abor­tion, embry­on­ic stem-cell research, and gay or les­bian rela­tions, were more accept­able to lib­er­als, the death penal­ty was one of just three issues that con­ser­v­a­tives found more accept­able than lib­er­als did, along­side med­ical test­ing on ani­mals and buying/​wearing cloth­ing made of fur.

The results are con­sis­tent with oth­er polling on the death penal­ty, which has shown a dra­mat­ic decline in sup­port since the late 1990s. Gallup’s 2021 poll on the death penal­ty found that 54% of respon­dents sup­port­ed it, mark­ing the low­est lev­el of sup­port since 1972. Opposition to the death penal­ty was 47%, the high­est lev­el since 1966.