Public Opinion

Public Support for Death Penalty Falls to Five-Decade Low, Opposition Highest in Almost Sixty Years 

According to October 2025 polling pro­duced by Gallup, pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty has fall­en to a five-decade low. Overall, Gallup found 52% of Americans in favor of the death penal­ty — down one per­cent­age point from 2024​’s num­ber of 53%. Support for the death penal­ty in the mod­ern death penal­ty era has been declin­ing since 1994, when sup­port reached a high of 80%. This year’s num­ber is the low­est since 1972, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court inval­i­dat­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statutes nation­wide, when only half of respon­dents were in favor of the death penal­ty. Gallup also found that 44% of Americans now oppose the death penal­ty — the high­est lev­el of oppo­si­tion record­ed since May 1966. Opposition to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has been increas­ing since the 1990s, and has more than tripled since 1995, when only 13% of Americans opposed the death penalty.

According to Gallup, a minor­i­ty of peo­ple 35 to 54 years old sup­port the death penal­ty (46%). The lev­el of sup­port falls even fur­ther for young adults: just 41% of peo­ple 18 to 34 years old now sup­port the death penal­ty. This dif­fer­ence marks a sig­nif­i­cant drop in sup­port over the past 15 years. For exam­ple, Gallup’s 2011 poll found 62% of peo­ple 30 to 49 years old and 52% of young adults 18 to 29 years old favored the death penalty. 

The divide between sup­port­ers of the two major polit­i­cal par­ties shows an ero­sion of sup­port for the death penal­ty among Independents and Democrats, but sup­port remains con­stant among Republicans. According to Gallup’s October 2025 polling, 82% of Republicans favor the death penal­ty, com­pared to 47% of Independents, and just 32% of Democrats. These num­bers show a 50-point dif­fer­ence in sup­port between the two major political parties. 

The Gallup Moral Issues Survey, admin­is­tered in May 2025, found no sig­nif­i­cant change from 2024: 56% of Americans still believe the death penal­ty is moral­ly accept­able, while 35% of respon­dents said the death penal­ty is moral­ly unac­cept­able, and 7% of respon­dents said it depends. Moral sup­port for the death penal­ty peaked in 2006, with 76% of those respond­ing, and has been declin­ing ever since. Moral accept­abil­i­ty of the death penal­ty also varies by polit­i­cal par­ty: Gallup report­ed that just 41% of Democrats find the death penal­ty moral­ly accept­able, while 54% of Independents and 72% of Republicans indi­cate similar beliefs.

Low Public Support for President Trump’s Push to Restart Federal Executions 

According to a YouGov sur­vey con­duct­ed between February and March 2025, a major­i­ty of American vot­ers do not sup­port President Donald Trump’s push to resume fed­er­al exe­cu­tions. YouGov found vot­ers divid­ed, with only 42% of vot­ers either strong­ly sup­port­ing or some­what sup­port­ing the resump­tion of fed­er­al exe­cu­tions and 37% either strong­ly or some­what oppos­ing resump­tion. One fifth of sur­veyed indi­vid­u­als indi­cat­ed they are not sure about this spe­cif­ic pol­i­cy ques­tion. Support for this issue is also large­ly par­ti­san: just 9% of Democrat respon­dents strong­ly sup­port the resump­tion of fed­er­al exe­cu­tions, while 41% of Democrat respon­dents strong­ly oppose the resump­tion. For Republican respon­dents, 39% strong­ly sup­port the resump­tion of exe­cu­tions, and just 7% of them strong­ly oppose the resump­tion of executions. 

Polling Reveals a Majority of Missouri Voters Support Clemency as Favorable Alternative to Execution in Shockley Case 

A 2025 study con­duct­ed by UC Irvine pro­fes­sor and chair of psy­chol­o­gy Nicholas Scurich found that 65% of the 440 reg­is­tered Missouri vot­ers sur­veyed sup­port­ed a grant of clemen­cy for Lance Shockley when they were informed about the cir­cum­stan­tial facts of his case. When weight­ed to account for Missouri’s vot­er demo­graph­ic, the sur­vey revealed that 79% of Democrats, 67% of Independents, and 53% of Republicans sup­port­ed clemen­cy for Mr. Shockley. The sur­vey also found that even those who sup­port use of the death penal­ty thought clemen­cy was war­rant­ed in Mr. Shockley’s case: 63% of those who some­what sup­port the death penal­ty indi­cat­ed they believed clemen­cy should be grant­ed, and 23% of strong sup­port­ers of the death penal­ty also believed in clemen­cy. Just 19% of respon­dents out­right opposed clemen­cy for Mr. Shockley. Voters who supported clemency ​“cit­ed doubts about the strength of the evi­dence, con­cerns about the fair­ness of the judi­cial process, and Shockley’s pos­i­tive con­duct and trans­for­ma­tion while incarcerated.” 

Dr. Scurich not­ed, “[t]his [was] not a par­ti­san issue.” He added that ​“the data show strong sup­port for clemen­cy across all polit­i­cal affil­i­a­tions, indi­cat­ing broad pub­lic con­cern about the evi­dence and process” in Mr. Shockley’s case. Ultimately, Governor Mike Kehoe denied his clemen­cy request and Missouri offi­cials exe­cut­ed him on October 14, 2025.