Gallup: Support for Death Penalty Hits Record-Low

American support for the death penalty has hit its lowest point in years in the latest Gallup Values and Beliefs poll released on Tuesday, dropping six percentage points from last year’s.

Gallup found that just over half of Americans think that the death penalty is morally acceptable, a substantial drop from 2006, when support hit an all-time high. It also found that opposition to the death penalty is the highest it's been in at least 20 years.

• 54% said the death penalty is morally acceptable.
• 40% said the death penalty is morally wrong.
• 60% in 2019 said the death penalty is morally acceptable.
• 35% in 2019 said the death penalty is morally wrong.
• 71% in 2006 said the death penalty is morally acceptable.
• 22% in 2006 said the death penalty is morally wrong.

Conservatives are more likely to approve of the death penalty, followed by moderates, and then liberals.

• 67% of conservatives think the death penalty is morally acceptable.
• 56% of moderates think the death penalty is morally acceptable.
• 37% of liberals think the death penalty is morally acceptable.

When asked to rate various activities or practices as morally acceptable or morally wrong, the death penalty ranked 11 out of 21.

Gallup notes that “For all of their differences, eight of the issues are deemed acceptable by majorities of both liberals and conservatives: birth control, divorce, sex between an unmarried man and woman, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, having a baby outside of marriage, medical testing on animals, and gambling.

“Also, five issues are broadly viewed as morally wrong by liberals and conservatives alike: cloning humans, extramarital affairs, cloning animals, polygamy and suicide.”

Gallup surveyed 1,028 adults across the U.S. from May 1-13, 2020. The poll has a margin of error of  4 percentage points.

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