Support for death penalty drops to lowest level in 4 decades

Updated


Support for the death penalty for convicted murderers is the lowest it's been since President Richard Nixon was in office, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

Just under half of Americans - 49 percent - favor the death penalty for those convicted of murder, while 42 percent oppose it. Support has dropped 7 percent since March 2015. Support for capital punishment peaked in the mid-1990s, when 80 percent of people were in favor and only 16 percent opposed it. The study was conducted from Aug. 23 to Sept. 2 among 1,201 adults.

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Opposition hasn't been this high since 1972, the same year the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in the landmark Furman v. Georgia decision. The decision voided about 40 death penalty statutes, but allowed states to rewrite their capital punishment laws to eliminate the issues brought up in the case. The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The number of executions in the U.S. has steadily declined since 2009, from 52 to 15 so far this year.

In a more detailed report from 2015, Americans expressed doubts on whether the death penalty was applied morally and whether it risked putting innocent people to death.

More on the death penalty in the U.S.

Support or opposition to the death penalty doesn't fall along age or educational lines, although according to the poll, younger people with at least some college are more likely to oppose capital punishment.

The discrepancies widen when looking at race and political affiliation. An estimated 55 percent of whites and 72 percent of Republicans favor capital punishment, while only 29 percent of blacks, 36 percent of Hispanics and 34 percent of Democrats support it.

The Supreme Court will hear an appeal this month in the case of Duane Buck, a Texas man convicted of murder in 1997, when public support for the death penalty was at 78 percent. Under Texas law, prosecutors must prove the defendant poses a future danger in order to secure the death penalty. A now-discredited defense expert said the fact that Buck was black increased his future dangerousness. His attorneys argue racial bias played an instrumental role in his sentencing.


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