The Guardian posts, "Six in 10 Americans support death penalty despite recent botched injections," by Jessica Glenza.
Though Americans’ opinions held steady over the past six years, support for executions has slid considerably since the mid-1990s, from an all-time high of 80% approval.
Democrats are responsible for a majority of the shift: 49% support the death penalty now, down 26 points from 1994. Over the same period, support among Republicans slipped from 85% to 76%.
Support is nowhere near its lowest point. In 1967, fewer than half of Americans approved of the death penalty.
As in many surveys, changing a question’s framing changes the answer. Support for the death penalty drops when people have the option to choose life in prison without parole. When given the alternative, half of Americans favor the death penalty.
"American support for the death penalty hasn’t budged since botched executions," is by Mark Berman for the Washington Post.
A new Gallup poll, released Thursday, shows that American support for the death penalty hasn’t really moved in the last five years:
It is worth noting that the gap between those who support and oppose the death penalty was more narrow in a Pew Research Center survey taken last year, which found that 55 percent of Americans supported it and 37 percent opposed it.
Public support for the death penalty has dropped over the last two decades, something found by the Pew poll last year and the Gallup poll this year. Gallup’s survey found that four out of five Americans supported the death penalty in 1994, a number that has declined considerably since then. (The Pew survey shows a similar dip since the mid-1990s.)
"Support for death penatly holds steady," is by Benjamin Goad at the Hill.
“The broader trend over the last two decades has been diminished support for the death penalty, including a 60 percent reading last year, the lowest since 1972,” Gallup concluded.
There remains a partisan divide in support for the death penalty, with 76 percent of Republicans in favor of the practice and just 49 percent of Democrats supportive of capital punishment for murderers, the survey finds.
But among those of all political stripes, including Republicans, support for the death penalty has waned over recent decades.
Earlier coverage of this year's Gallup polling begins with the preceding post.
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