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A recent Gallup poll found the low­est lev­el of sup­port for the death penal­ty in America since 1972. Gallup’s October poll mea­sured Americans’ abstract sup­port at 60%, a 20-per­cent­age point decline from 1994, when 80% of respon­dents were in favor of the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of mur­der. Support for the death penal­ty dif­fered sharply among those who iden­ti­fied them­selves with a polit­i­cal par­ty: 81% of Republicans sup­port­ed the death penal­ty, while only 47% of Democrats and 60% of Independents favored it. However, sup­port among all three groups has dropped in the last 25 years, with the Democrats’ sup­port declin­ing 28 per­cent­age points since its peak in 1994. This poll mea­sured the public’s sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the­o­ry, with­out any com­par­i­son to oth­er pun­ish­ments. When Gallup and oth­er polls have offered respon­dents a choice of the prop­er pun­ish­ment for mur­der — the death penal­ty or life in prison with­out parole — respon­dents are about even­ly split, with less than 50% sup­port­ing the death penal­ty. Gallup’s release not­ed that the decline in sup­port may be linked to the issue of inno­cence, ​“The cur­rent era of low­er sup­port may be tied to death penal­ty mora­to­ri­ums in sev­er­al states begin­ning around 2000 after sev­er­al death-row inmates were lat­er proven inno­cent of the crimes of which they were con­vict­ed.” In the past 10 years, the per­cent­age of Americans who believe the death penal­ty is applied fair­ly has dropped from 60% to 52%.

The poll was con­duct­ed between October 3 – 6, 2013, with a sam­ple size of 1,028. The mar­gin of error was +4 per­cent­age points.

(J. Jones, ​“U.S. Death Penalty Support Lowest in More than 40 Years,” Gallup, October 29, 2013). See Public Opinion. See also Andrew Cohen’s arti­cle in The Atlantic, ​“What Americans Don’t Understand About the Death Penalty.”

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