US poll shows death penalty lost majority support for first time since 1971

A new Gallup poll has found that support for the death penalty in the United States has fallen below 50 percent, marking the first time that the controversial practice has lost majority support since 1971.

The poll released on Tuesday found that 49 percent of people said they are in favour of capital punishment for those convicted of murder, the lowest level since 1966, while 45 percent say they are opposed.

“While statistically similar to last year’s 52 percent, the latest update marks the first time support has been below the majority level since 1971, when it was also at 49 percent,” Gallup said in a statement.

Support for the death penalty has been declining for decades amid concerns about issues of fairness, racial bias, high costs, botched executions and the possibility of innocent people being put to death. Decades of scholarship have also cast doubt on the argument that capital punishment deters crime.

Age, party divide

The latest Gallup poll found stark divides by age and partisan affiliation. While 54 percent of people aged 50 and older support the death penalty, that figure drops to just 39 percent for those younger the age of 30.

About 73 percent of Republicans are in favour, compared with 50 percent for independents and 28 percent for Democrats.

But all of those groups have seen support decline over the last three decades, dropping by 11 points for Republicans, 29 points for independents, and 47 points for Democrats since 1994, during the heyday of tough-on-crime politics in the US.

In that period, a punitive approach to criminal justice embraced by both parties transformed the US into one of the most prolific jailers on the planet and saw an increase in the number of crimes that qualified for execution.

A debate about the legacy of the policies championed during that era, including the death penalty, has been pushed forward by protests for racial justice in recent years.

While 27 US states still have the death penalty, 23 have done away with the practice and four have paused it through executive action, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit research group.

Rise in federal executions

Many states that still have capital punishment on the books have gone years without carrying out an execution, and lengthy appeals processes have meant that many prisoners spend years or even decades on death row.

President Donald Trump has been an exception to the move away from capital punishment, overseeing a massive increase in federal executions during his first term in office and promising to continue using it during his second.