A nation­al poll of Roman Catholic adults con­duct­ed by Zogby International found that Catholic sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has declined dra­mat­i­cal­ly in recent years. The Zogby Poll was released on March 21, 2005 at a press con­fer­ence of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as it announced a new Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty. The poll revealed that only 48% of Catholics now sup­port the death penal­ty. Comparable polls by oth­er orga­ni­za­tions had res­gis­tered a 68% sup­port among Catholics in 2001. In addi­tion, the per­cent­age of Catholics who are strong­ly sup­port­ive of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has been halved, from a high of 40% to 20% in the most recent sur­vey. The poll also found that:

  • Regular church­go­ers are less like­ly to sup­port the death penal­ty than those who attend infrequently.
  • Younger Catholics are among those least like­ly to sup­port the death penalty.
  • A third of Catholics who once sup­port­ed the use of the death penal­ty now oppose it.

Among the major rea­sons Catholics gave for their oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was ​“respect for life,” and 63% voiced con­cerns about what the use of the death penal­ty ​“does to us as a peo­ple and a coun­try.” Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington, was joined by John Zogby, President of Zogby International, Bud Welch, whose daugh­ter was killed in the Oklahoma City bomb­ing, and Kirk Bloodsworth, who was freed from death row after DNA evi­dence led to his exon­er­a­tion, at the press con­fer­ence. (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Press Release, March 21, 2005). See the Website for the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty. See also Public Opinion.

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