Do you know how these opinions compare to those in other countries?
Cheers, Ken hanly --- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> <http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=29014>
>
> October 12, 2007
> Sixty-nine Percent of Americans Support Death
> Penalty
> Majority say death penalty is applied fairly
>
> by Frank Newport
> GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
>
> PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's annual October Gallup Poll
> Social Series
> update on Americans' attitudes toward crime shows no
> diminution in
> Americans' strong support for the death penalty in
> cases of murder.
>
> The Oct. 4-7 poll indicates that 69% of Americans
> respond "yes" when
> asked this question: "Are you in favor of the death
> penalty for a
> person convicted of murder?" This level of support
> for the death
> penalty is generally in line with the level of
> support that Gallup
> has measured in 13 polls featuring this question
> since 1999.
>
> Prior to 1999, support for the death penalty, based
> on Gallup Poll
> responses to this question -- which was first asked
> in the 1930s --
> waxed and waned over the years[.]
>
> When Gallup asked Americans about the death penalty
> in cases of
> murder more than 70 years ago in 1936, 59% supported
> it. Support
> dropped below 50% at several points in the 1950s,
> 1960s, and in 1971,
> although with relatively large "don't knows." There
> has been only one
> Gallup Poll -- conducted in May 1966 -- showing
> greater opposition
> than support for the death penalty. That poll came
> as the country was
> debating the constitutionality of the death penalty
> and culminated in
> the Supreme Court's ruling several state death
> penalty laws
> unconstitutional. However, the death penalty
> returned in the
> mid-1970s as newly written state laws passed
> constitutional muster,
> and the percentage of Americans in favor of the
> death penalty rose
> again to the 60% and 70% range. The all-time high
> point for support
> for the death penalty was 80%, measured in 1994.
>
> There are a number of different ways to gauge public
> attitudes about
> the use of the death penalty in the United States.
> The basic favor/
> oppose question has the great advantage of having
> been trended back
> to the 1930s, as noted, and has varied significantly
> over the years.
>
> A different question that Gallup uses from time to
> time, however,
> finds a lower level of support for the death
> penalty. This question
> provides the respondent with an explicit alternative
> to the death
> penalty: "life imprisonment, with absolutely no
> possibility of
> parole." This question was not asked this year, but
> support for the
> death penalty typically has registered in the 47% to
> 54% range when
> this alternative has been included in the question
> this decade.
>
> All in all, a substantial majority of Americans
> support the idea of
> the use of the death penalty in cases of murder, but
> some of this
> support appears weak enough that it could be
> affected by a promise
> that convicted murderers would be given life
> imprisonment with no
> chance for parole. Some Americans may be skeptical
> that such a
> guarantee could ever be made ironclad, which may at
> least partially
> account for the gap between basic support for the
> death penalty and
> support in response to this hypothetical question.
>
> Morality of the Death Penalty
>
> Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs Survey, conducted
> each May, shows
> that 66% of Americans -- almost the same percentage
> that supports the
> death penalty -- find the death penalty "morally
> acceptable." Just
> 27% say the death penalty is morally wrong. This
> view of the morality
> of the death penalty has been relatively constant
> since 2001.
>
> In short, about two-thirds of Americans support the
> death penalty in
> response to two key measures -- as an appropriate
> penalty for a
> person convicted of murder and as being morally
> acceptable.
>
> Frequency of Use and Fairness of the Death Penalty
>
> Not only do Americans support the death penalty in
> concept, but only
> a minority of about one in five says the death
> penalty is imposed too
> often. About half say that it is not imposed often
> enough, while the
> rest say it is imposed about the right amount. These
> perceptions have
> been roughly constant since 2002. In a May 2001
> survey, however, the
> percentage saying the death penalty was not imposed
> often enough was
> lower, at 38%.
>
> A good part of the criticism of the death penalty in
> recent years has
> focused on allegations that it is imposed unfairly.
> DNA evidence has
> shown that some people on death row were actually
> not guilty of the
> crimes for which they were convicted, and critics
> argue that people
> belonging to certain subgroups of the population --
> including
> minorities -- are disproportionately likely to
> receive the death
> penalty and to be executed than are others.
>
> But only 38% of Americans believe that the death
> penalty is applied
> unfairly in this country today. A majority of 57%
> say that it is not.
> Americans have actually become slightly more likely
> to say the death
> penalty is applied fairly in the last several years,
> compared with
> results from polls conducted in 2000 and 2002,
> during the height of
> publicity surrounding state moratoriums on the death
> penalty.
>
> Support for the death penalty varies some within
> different subgroups
> of the American population, but perhaps not as much
> as might be
> expected.
>
> Only two groups are more than 10 points above the
> sample average in
> terms of their support -- conservatives and
> Republicans. Only three
> groups are less likely by 10 points or more than the
> sample average
> to support the death penalty -- liberals, those with
> postgraduate
> education, and nonwhites.
>
> The sample size of blacks in this one survey is too
> small to provide
> reliable estimates of the attitudes of this group,
> but a detailed
> analysis by Gallup's Lydia Saad in late July (see
> Related Items)
> showed that blacks are less likely to support the
> death penalty than
> are whites by about 30 percentage points, and that
> blacks have
> consistently over the years been significantly less
> likely to support
> the death penalty than have whites.
>
> Also of note in the current survey is that men are
> generally more
> supportive of the death penalty than are women.
>
> Survey Methods
>
> Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,010
> national adults,
>
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