Support for the death penalty among adults in the United States has dropped below the majority level for the first time since 1971, a new Gallup poll found. Source: OSV News.
Forty-nine per cent of US adults said they are in favour of the death penalty for convicted murderers, while another 45 per cent said they are opposed, the poll released yesterday said.
While Gallup called the findings statistically similar to last year’s rate of 52 per cent approval, the new poll marks the first time support for the practice has been a minority position since 1971, when it was also at 49 per cent.
Gallup said the last time support was lower than its current findings was in 1966, when a record-low 42 per cent favoured the death penalty. Support peaked at 80 per cent in 1994, it said. Gallup said it first measured Americans’ opinions about the death penalty in 1936.
The decline was primarily driven by declines in support for the practice among Democrats and younger generations of US adults, Gallup said.
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilising Network, a group that advocates for the abolition of capital punishment in line with Catholic teaching, said in written comments to OSV News, “These results are a clear indication that fewer and fewer people are buying the false rhetoric that the death penalty is effective or fair.”
“Quite the contrary, in fact: Capital punishment introduces more violence and trauma to families, to our communities, and to society,” Ms Vaillancourt Murphy said.
“It’s encouraging to see the continued shift away from the culture of death and toward a culture of life.”
Gallup said the findings are from a poll conducted October 1-19, which began the day after the failed execution of Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike. Tennessee has suspended executions in the state for an investigation.
Also during that timeframe, President Donald Trump called off Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth’s plans to livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad in December.
The plan drew widespread condemnation, including from US bishops.
FULL STORY
Poll: Support for death penalty dips to minority among US adults for first time in decades (By Kate Scanlon, OSV News)
