One day after we released our report showing a surge of Republican death penalty repeal sponsors, more good news came out. Every October, Gallup releases its annual survey on death penalty support in the U.S. For the past several years, they have found support for capital punishment to be at or near its lowest point in 40-years. Now that support has declined even further.
According to the 2017 Gallup poll, support for capital punishment is the lowest it has been since 1972 – a 45-year low. While the firm found that 55% of Americans still favor the death penalty, it’s down from a high of 80% in 1994. They also discovered that Republican support for capital punishment dropped 10 points over the past year, bringing it to the lowest it has been since before 1988.
Gallup’s poll is important because it shows long-term historical trends that reveal how Americans are turning against the death penalty. But Gallup’s numbers may actually be inflated, since other polling firms have shown support for the death penalty to be even lower.
Last year, PEW found national death penalty support to be at 49% – a 40-year low. Meanwhile, surveys in Kentucky, Oklahoma, and North Carolina altered their polling question and instead asked if respondents would support repealing and replacing the death penalty. In all 3 states, the majority supported ending capital punishment. Even more exciting information was found when one digs deeper into the polling data. In Kentucky and North Carolina, the majority of Republicans supported such measures, while the plurality of Republicans in Oklahoma also favored ending the death penalty.
While each pollster employs different methodologies and varying questions, two things are certain. Death penalty support is waning, and Republican opposition to capital punishment is growing. Given that conservatives are increasingly concluding that the death penalty violates our foundational principles, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.