A June 2007 Gallup Poll revealed that, dur­ing the past decade, there has been a sig­nif­i­cant drop in the per­cent­age of whites and blacks who sup­port cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Among black respon­dents, oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty has grown from 37% in the mid-1990s to a major­i­ty of 56% today. Responses giv­en by white respon­dents have also shift­ed dur­ing the past decade. In the mid-1990s, 80% of white respon­dents said that they favored the death penal­ty, but today that per­cent­age has dropped to 70%. Nationally, sup­port for the death penal­ty remained at 65%, sim­i­lar to fig­ures for the past three years, but down sig­nif­i­cant­ly from 1994 when 80% sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The Gallup Poll’s most recent sur­vey was con­duct­ed from June 4 – 24, 2007, and includ­ed inter­views with 2,388 adults nation­wide. The mar­gin of error is +5 per­cent­age points.
(Gallup Poll News Service, July 31, 2007). See Public Opinion.


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