"U.S. Death Penalty Support Lowest in More Than 40 Years," is the Gallup report written by Jeffrey M. Jones. Here's the beginning and the first of several charts:
Sixty percent of Americans say they favor the death penalty for convicted murderers, the lowest level of support Gallup has measured since November 1972, when 57% were in favor. Death penalty support peaked at 80% in 1994, but it has gradually declined since then.
Gallup first asked Americans their views on the death penalty using this question in 1936, and has updated it periodically since then, including annual updates since 1999.
Americans have typically favored the death penalty; in fact, support has exceeded opposition in all but one survey, conducted in May 1966, during an era marked by philosophical and legal challenges to the death penalty from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s. Americans' support for the death penalty waned during that time. The culmination of that era was the Supreme Court's 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision, which invalidated all state death penalty statutes on technical grounds but stopped short of declaring the practice itself unconstitutional. Four years later, the court ruled that several newly written death penalty laws were constitutional, and executions resumed in the U.S. shortly thereafter.
"Poll: Death penalty approval drops," is by Jose DelReal at Politico.
The death penalty for convicted murderers is at its lowest approval rating since 1972, according to a new poll released Tuesday.
The Gallup poll shows that while the majority of American still support the death penalty, the new 60 percent approval rating is the lowest in more than four decades.
And:
Six of the 18 states that ban the death penalty have instituted those bans since 2006.
Democrats and Republicans are sharply split on the issue, with only 47 percent of Democrats supporting the death penalty while 81 percent of Republicans are in favor. The majority of independents support the death penalty with a 60 percent approval.
"The Death Penalty: Still Popular, But Getting Less Popular," by Connor Simpson at Politico.
This new Gallup polls suggests some Americans are more forgiving than they once were, as support for the death has fallen dramatically since hitting 80 percent in 1994, to 60 percent in 2013. The last time support for the death penalty was this low among all Americans was in November 1972, which is the year that the Supreme Court effectively placed a moratorium on executions which lasted until 1976.
Earlier polling from Gallup is at the link. Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.
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