Support for death penalty reaches 50-year low, poll finds
Forty-nine percent of American adults approve of the death penalty for convicted murderers, according to Gallup, the first time the figure has dropped below 50% since 1971.
Key points
- Support for capital punishment has been declining in the US for years over concerns about fairness and racial bias.
- The poll was taken after the botched killing by lethal injection of Christa Pike, which caused Tennessee to pause executions for the remainder of the year.
- Gavin Newsom, a possible 2028 Democratic presidential contender, also recently spared the lives of hundreds of prisoners on the state’s death row.
Support for the death penalty is sliding among all political groups but most among Democrats, only 28% of whom are currently in favor.
Support for the death penalty in the US has dropped to a more than 50-year low following a botched execution in Tennessee.
Additional details
- Seventy-three percent of Republicans are in favor of it, as well as half of independents.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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