Support for capital punishment in the United States has reached its lowest level in more than 50 years, with 49 percent of adults saying in a Gallup poll released Tuesday that they are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers.
It’s the first time support has fallen below 50 percent since 1971, the year before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled many death penalty laws nationwide were unconstitutional.
Americans were surveyed in early October, in the weeks following Tennessee’s botched execution of convicted killer Christa Pike, who was administered two doses of pentobarbital and became the first known person in U.S. history to survive a complete lethal injection protocol.
Outgoing Gov. Bill Lee (R), who denied Pike’s clemency application, has paused all executions in Tennessee through the end of the year and launched an investigation into the botched execution.
The decline in support is most pronounced among Democrats, 28 percent of whom favor of the death penalty, and younger Americans, at 39 percent. While Republican support is much higher overall, it has also waned, with 73 percent of those polled saying they favor capital punishment — one of the lowest rates Gallup has measured for conservatives.
The District of Columbia and 23 states have abolished the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, but it remains on the books in 27 states and the federal system. Seven states have carried out executions this year, and more than half of those happened under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in Florida — which has executed 19 people.
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