PUBLIC OPINION: Gallup Poll Reports Lowest Support for Death Penalty in Nearly 40 Years

Recent polls con­duct­ed by Gallup and CNN indi­cate Americans’ sup­port for the death penal­ty is con­tin­u­ing to decline. According to Gallup’s 2011 poll, the per­cent­age of Americans approv­ing the death penal­ty as a pun­ish­ment for mur­der dropped to its low­est lev­el in 39 years. Only 61% sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the­o­ry, down from 64% last year and from 80% sup­port in 1994. This is the low­est lev­el of sup­port since 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing in Furman v. Georgia void­ed death penal­ty statutes across the coun­try. Opposition to the death penal­ty (35%) in this recent poll reached a 39-year high. The Gallup poll also showed an increase from last year in those who believe the death penal­ty is applied too often or unfair­ly. Support for the death penal­ty dropped com­pared to last year among both Republicans and Democrats. This year, among Democrats (or those lean­ing that way) more opposed the death penal­ty than sup­port­ed it, a reverse from a year ago. A recent CNN poll (con­duct­ed by ORC International) showed that when giv­en a choice of sen­tences between life in prison with­out parole or the death penal­ty for the crime of mur­der, more Americans (50%) would opt for the life sen­tence than for death (48%). Seven years ago, the major­i­ty (56%) chose the death penal­ty over the life-with­out parole sen­tence. In CNN’s recent poll, the num­ber of Americans who believe that at least one per­son in the past five years has been exe­cut­ed for a crime that he or she did not com­mit increased to 72%.

(F. Newport, ​“In U.S., Support for Death Penalty Falls to 39-Year Low,” Gallup, October 13, 2011; ​“CNN Poll: Number who pre­fer death penal­ty on decline,” CNN, October 12, 2011). Results for the Gallup poll were based on tele­phone inter­views con­duct­ed Oct. 6 – 9, with a ran­dom sam­ple of 1,005 adults, aged 18 and old­er, liv­ing in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The sam­pling error is ±4 per­cent­age points. The CNN poll was con­duct­ed from September 23 – 25 among 1,010 adults who were ques­tioned by tele­phone. It has a sam­pling error of +3 per­cent­age points. See Public Opinion and DPIC’s own poll con­duct­ed by Lake Research Partners in 2010, show­ing strong sup­port for alter­na­tive sen­tences over the death penalty.