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.