A recent Harris Poll found that only 41% of Americans believe that the death penalty deters crime, marking the smallest number of such respondents in 27 years of this poll. Only 37% of those polled would continue to support capital punishment if they believed “that quite a substantial number of innocent people are convicted of murder.” Overall, 69% percent of those polled said that they support capital punishment. The poll was conducted in December 2003. (PR Newswire, January 7, 2004) See Public Opinion.