A recent Harris Poll found that only 41% of Americans believe that the death penal­ty deters crime, mark­ing the small­est num­ber of such respon­dents in 27 years of this poll. Only 37% of those polled would con­tin­ue to sup­port cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment if they believed ​“that quite a sub­stan­tial num­ber of inno­cent peo­ple are con­vict­ed of mur­der.” Overall, 69% per­cent of those polled said that they sup­port cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The poll was con­duct­ed in December 2003. (PR Newswire, January 7, 2004) See Public Opinion.

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