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New National Poll Shows Decrease in Support for Capital Punishment

Posted: November 12, 2008
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The Gallup Poll’s latest national survey of American opinion on the death penalty found that support for capital punishment dropped by 5 percentage points from 2007, down to 64% support from 69% last year. The pecentage of those opposing capital punishment rose from 27% to 30%. This poll reflects that support for the death penalty is equal to the lowest level in the Gallup Polls during the past 30 years.  Support had reached a high of 80% in 1994.

PUBLIC OPINION: Colorado Voters Would Rather Spend Money on Cold Cases than on Death Penalty

Posted: April 03, 2008
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A recent Colorado poll conducted by RBI Strategies and Research found that 63% of citizens believe that money spent on the death penalty would be better used to close unsolved murder cases.

New Poll Finds Increase in Opposition to Death Penalty

Posted: March 20, 2008
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A recent Harris Interactive poll of over 1,000 American adults found that the number of people who oppose the death penalty has increased since 2003. Thirty-percent (30%) of those sampled oppose the death penalty, an increase of 8 percentage points in the past 5 years. The percentage of respondents who "believe in capital punishment" has dropped significantly since 1997, when 75% supported the death penalty.  In 2008, that number had declined to 63%, the lowest number in recent years.

RELIGIOUS VIEWS: Christians Concerned about Execution of Innocent People

Posted: February 19, 2008
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A recent poll by NationalChristianPoll.com found that two-thirds of active Christians who oppose the death penalty are concerned about judicial error that could lead to an innocent person being executed.  The poll also found that of Christians who do support the death penalty, 60% do so because of biblical teachings.  According to a Pew Forum poll from 2007, the strongest supporters of the death penalty are white evangelicals, with 74% approval.  However, John W

PUBLIC OPINION: Support for Death Penalty Weak Among Blacks and Hispanics

Posted: December 21, 2007
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According to new polling analysis from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, support for the death penalty among the general public has dropped to 62% (August 2007), down from a high of 80% support in the mid-1990s.  Among black respondents, 51% opposed the death penalty and only 40% were in favor.  Hispanics were about evenly split with 48% in favor of the death penalty and 47% opposed.  Eighty-two (82%) percent of conservative Republicans support the death penalty, but only 41% of liberal Democrats.  Among religious groups, white evangelical Protestants had the highest support-

PUBLIC OPINION: Poll Reveals Marylanders Prefer Life Without Parole Over Death Penalty

Posted: October 29, 2007
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A recent Washington Post opinion poll found that Marylanders prefer the sentence of life in prison over the death penalty. In the October 2007 poll of 1,103 Maryland adults, respondents were asked to choose between the sentence of life in prison without parole or the death penalty for the crime of murder: 52% said they favored life without parole and 43% supported capital punishment. Among black respondents, support for life without parole was even stronger, with 65% responding that they preferred the sentence of life in prison and only 29% choosing the death penalty.

PUBLIC OPINION: Gallup Poll Finds Less Support Among Blacks and Whites

Posted: August 01, 2007
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A June 2007 Gallup Poll revealed that, during the past decade, there has been a significant drop in the percentage of whites and blacks who support capital punishment. Among black respondents, opposition to the death penalty has grown from 37% in the mid-1990s to a majority of 56% today. Responses given by white respondents have also shifted during the past decade. In the mid-1990s, 80% of white respondents said that they favored the death penalty, but today that percentage has dropped to 70%.

Pew Poll Shows Modest Decline in Death Penalty Support

Posted: June 21, 2007
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The Pew Research Center recently released a poll on a variety of social issues, including the death penalty. The poll found that 64% of the U.S. adults support the imposition of the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. This is a decline of 14 percentage points from 1996, when 78% of respondents said they supported it.

A Crisis of Confidence

Posted: June 11, 2007
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Read the Newsweek Feature 
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DPIC's New Poll and Report Shows America Becoming More Distant from the Death Penalty  

NEW DPIC REPORT and POLL: "A Crisis of Confidence"

Posted: June 08, 2007
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According to a new report and opinion poll issued today by the Death Penalty Information Center, the American public is losing confidence in the death penalty as doubts about innocence and the purpose of capital punishment increase. The report, A Crisis of Confidence: Americans’ Doubts About the Death Penalty, is based on a recent national opinion poll conducted by RT Strategies and commissioned by DPIC.

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