Nationwide support for the death penalty has fallen to its lowest level in decades due to shifting attitudes among younger generations, new polling reveals.
Today, 53% of American adults are in favor of the death penalty, which is the smallest share measured since the 1970s, according to a Gallup poll.
The results, pulled from Gallup’s crime survey — which tracks death penalty support at regular intervals — continue a trend of steadily declining support for capital punishment.
Between 2000 and 2006, an average of 66% of Americans favored the death penalty, and between 2010 and 2016, an average of 61% supported it.
Generational differences
Support for the death penalty has ticked down across all generations, but it’s been particularly pronounced among the young.
Forty-seven percent of Millennials favor capital punishment, marking a 16-point drop from an average of 63% between 2000 to 2006.
Even fewer Gen Z adults, 42%, now support the death penalty, though they were not old enough to be sampled in previous polls.
In contrast, 61% of Baby Boomers support the death penalty today, marking a five-point drop from an average of 66% between 2000 to 2006.
Similarly, 58% of Gen X adults now support capital punishment — a nine-point decline from an average of 67% two decades ago.
“Younger generations’ exposure to the issue has come when many states had moratoriums on the death penalty or repealed laws that allowed capital punishment,” according to Gallup. “These efforts were often motivated by cases in which death-row inmates were later found innocent of the crime for which they were convicted.”
Partisan differences
While Democrats have grown increasingly opposed to capital punishment, opinions among Republicans have largely remained the same across time.
Today, 38% of Democrats favor the death penalty, compared to an average of 57% between 2000 and 2006.
In contrast, the vast majority of Republicans, 82%, support capital punishment. That figure stood at an average of 81% between 2000 and 2006.
Views among independents, meanwhile, have changed slightly. Today, 58% support the death penalty, compared to an average of 64% two decades ago.
More on the death penalty
Since the 1970s, about 1,600 people have been executed in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a nonprofit that researches capital punishment.
But in recent decades, executions have declined dramatically, with most being carried out in just a handful of states.
So far in 2024, 21 executions have been conducted across eight states, including five in Texas and five in Alabama.
The most common method of execution is lethal injection, but some states still permit other options, including electrocution, hanging and firing squad, according to the DPIC.
Twenty-three states, including New York, Illinois and Colorado, have passed laws banning the death penalty, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization.
