The Pew Research Center recently released a poll on a variety of social issues, including the death penalty. The poll found that 64% of the U.S. adults support the imposition of the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. This is a decline of 14 percentage points from 1996, when 78% of respondents said they supported it. The Center reported that support for the death penalty was higher among men than women, and was substantially higher among whites (69%) than among African Americans (44%) and Hispanics (45%).
(Yahoo News, June 20, 2007; based on Pew Research Center Poll, March 22, 2007).
See DPIC’s latest report, “A Crisis of Confidence: Americans’ Doubts About the Death Penalty.”
Citation Guide
- Death Penalty Information Center (2025, March 14). Pew Poll Shows Modest Decline in Death Penalty Support. Retrieved October 4, 2026, from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/pew-poll-shows-modest-decline-in-death-penalty-support
- Death Penalty Information Center. “Pew Poll Shows Modest Decline in Death Penalty Support.” Last modified March 14, 2025. Accessed October 4, 2026. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/pew-poll-shows-modest-decline-in-death-penalty-support.
- Death Penalty Information Center. “Pew Poll Shows Modest Decline in Death Penalty Support.” Death Penalty Information Center, 14 Mar. 2025, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/pew-poll-shows-modest-decline-in-death-penalty-support. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.
