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Honestly speaking, I’m in favor of the death penalty viewing from the following 2 aspects.

1. Social security and stability

A lot of opponents argue that there is no credible evidence implying that death penalty can help deter crime according to some researches or related authorities. However, studies that do find some correlation between the execution and crime are not supposed to be shrugged off as well.

Basing on the study  demonstrated by the picture, the death penalty plays a significant role in reducing the number of murders in the U.S., which is absolutely beneficial to the social security. In addition, it may prevent criminals from committing more crimes with a possibility of being sentenced to death if the crime is too severe. What’s more, statistics also reveals that nearly 86% Chinese people support death penalty. At least in China, the existence of death penalty increases people’s sense of security, which exerts a profound impact on the social stability as well.

2. Fairness

To begin with, the original establishment of law in human society is to fulfill an essential purpose of punishment, and the purpose of punishment is to provide a solid foundation for fairness. As the ancient Chinese idiom goes, an eye for an eye. The punishment given to criminals should be at least as serious as victims’ injuries or hurts;otherwise, it will not realize the very purpose of punishment. Therefore, from my personal point of view, it is really unfair that a serial killer who takes away plenty of innocent lives or a drug trafficker who destroys a great number of families only receives years of imprisonment, who may be even released in the future. Moreover, the unfairness generated by cancelling death sentences can be also found among prisoners. It is not uncommon to find some “funny” cases where culprits are sentenced to 100 years, or even 1000 years, which, as a matter of fact, is totally the same as other criminals given life imprisonment. However, the severity of crimes committed by the latter prisoners is not the same with the former.

I grant that there are some possibilities of false verdicts that kill innocent civilians, and such cases, though not prevalent, are by no means isolated. Nerverthelass, I still maintain that keeping death penalties is necessary in our society.

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Shuji (Death penalty should be abolished)

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Shuji (Death penalty should be abolished)

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I think we should abolish a capital punishment.

1. People can make an error.

-----We, human beings, can make a mistakes when we judge people. As for Japan, there are 4 cases which returned the death penalty to innocence on the retrial. We have the risk to kill the people who should not be killed.

2. There is no evidence that the capital punishment can be crime deterrence or not.

-----Many people who agree with the capital punishment argue that death penalty will be crime deterrence. But these data can be interpreted in two ways. For example, Canada abolished the death penalty in 1966. But after they abolished it, some people says the crime rate declined and other people says it did not changed by analyzing the data.

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According to the Oregonian, in 1995 the trials for three Washington County murder cases cost more than $1.5 million. One was sentenced to death. The two others, one of whom was found guilty of four murders, are not on death row. In 2000 a fiscal impact summary from the Oregon Department of Administrative Services stated that the Oregon Judicial Department alone would save $2.3 million annually if the death penalty were eliminated. It is estimated that total prosecution and defense costs to the state and counties equal $9 million per year.

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I also think that it is difficult to compare death penalty with abortion. But nevertheless both is killing a human life. So I think if you legalise the death penalty you have to legalise abortion as well. Or the other way round.

In addition to that, in my opinion I think that abortion and death penalty should be allowed, but there need to be some restrictions. So for example, for abortion you need the agreement of the mother and the father. And on the other hand, for the death penalty there need to be really really good arguments and evidence that the one who will get killed is the one who is guilty. And it also depends on what he did, and in what purpose.

Moreover it is very difficult to decide, or make a law, what states for what a death penalty should be set. Because there can be so many diffrent cicumstances. Till now i dont have and i dont know anyone who has a good idea to spereate the people who deserve a death penalty from them who dont deserve it. Altough both of them did something wrong.

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Crimical should get what they deserve -- 

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Crimical should get what they deserve -- 

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I wanna share a case. The case made me realized that why there should be death penalty to punish the crimal.

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Top court ruling 'inevitable': judge

Staff Writer

The Supreme Court upheld the death penalty Monday for a man convicted of strangling and then raping a young mother and murdering her 11-month-old daughter in 1999 in Yamaguchi Prefecture when he was 18.

The high-profile trial has sparked a lengthy legal debate over whether someone who committed such extremely cruel acts as a minor should be sent to the gallows. Initial lower court trials resulted in life imprison ment.

The top court's 1st Petty Bench, presided over by Justice Seishi Kanetsuki, branded the crime "very evil" and said hanging is "inevitable," as there was no room for leniency even though the defendant, Takayuki Otsuki, was a minor when he committed the crimes.

Otsuki, 30, was convicted of murdering and raping Yayoi Motomura, 23, and killing her baby daughter, Yuka, in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, on April 14, 1999.

Otsuki, who lived nearby, broke into the apartment of Hiroshi Motomura while he was away and strangled Motomura's wife and raped her, the Hiroshima High Court said, adding that he entered the dwelling intent on committing rape.

Otsuki was 18 years and one month old at the time of the crimes, thus his name was withheld because he was a minor. But with Monday's top court ruling, it has been made public.

The Juvenile Law stipulates that someone younger than 18 must not be sentenced to death, but with 20 being the age of majority, the way sentences are meted out to 18- and 19-year-old offenders tends to be controversial.

Motomura's husband, 35, has been urging capital punishment and has effectively been a public figure calling for a rethink of how the judicial system handles juvenile offenders.

"The death sentence was what I had demanded and therefore is satisfactory. But I don't feel glad. I just solemnly accept the outcome," the husband told reporters Monday.

"I believe judges weighed whether the defendant showed remorse or had the potential to be rehabilitated much more than merely considering that he was 18," Motomura said, adding he is not sure if age should be where the line is drawn between those sentenced to hang and those who are spared.

Otsuki's trial started before the Yamaguchi District Court, which sentenced him to life. The Hiroshima High Court upheld that sentence, but the Supreme Court in 2006 ordered a high court retrial, saying, "It cannot be said that the age at the time of the criminal act can be a deciding factor to avoid the death sentence."

In April 2008, the high court reversed itself and sentenced Otsuki to death, arguing at the time: "There is no reason to avoid capital punishment." Otsuki's counsel then appealed.

The Monday ruling will be finalized in 10 days unless Otsuki's attorneys file an appeal, which the top court can either reject or replace with a different ruling.

Other than Otsuki, five other people who were 18 or 19 when they committed murder have been sentenced to death, and one of them was hanged in 1997. The others are currently in prison.

Each of the five were convicted of killing more than two people.

Courts tend to equate the cruelty of the crimes with the number of victims. Thus Otsuki is the first one who was younger than 20 when he committed his crimes to get the death sentence for killing two people.

After the ruling, defense attorneys said the court made the wrong decision. "It is extremely unjust," they said in a statement.

The attorneys argued that Otsuki, who was abused as a child, tried to hug Yayoi Motomura, as he regarded her as a mother figure, but then he fatally overpowered her with his right hand, panicked and killed the baby. They said he had no intention to rape or kill.

Amnesty International official Teruo Hayashi said the group opposes the death sentence no matter what the age of the criminal is. "We understand the cruelty of the act and the feeling of next of kin. But we oppose the death sentence because it is against people's right to live," he said.

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Double-killer as minor will face gallows | The Japan Times

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Top court ruling 'inevitable': judge Staff Writer The Supreme Court upheld the death penalty Monday for a man convicted of strangling and then raping a young mother and murdering her 11-month-old daughter in 1999 in Yamaguchi Prefecture when he was 18.

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Ilya-Why Christians should support the death penaltyOpinion by R. Albert Mohler Jr., Special to CNN

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Ilya-Why Christians should support the death penaltyOpinion by R. Albert Mohler Jr., Special to CNN

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Opinion by R. Albert Mohler Jr., Special to CNN

(CNN) - The death penalty has been part of human society for millennia, understood to be the ultimate punishment for the most serious crimes.

But, should Christians support the death penalty now, especially in light of the controversial execution Tuesday in Oklahoma?

This is not an easy yes or no question.

On the one hand, the Bible clearly calls for capital punishment in the case of intentional murder.

In Genesis 9:6, God told Noah that the penalty for intentional murder should be death: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image."

The death penalty was explicitly grounded in the fact that God made every individual human being in his own image, and thus an act of intentional murder is an assault upon human dignity and the very image of God.

In the simplest form, the Bible condemns murder and calls for the death of the murderer. The one who intentionally takes life by murder forfeits the right to his own life.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul instructs Christians that the government "does not bear the sword in vain." Indeed, in this case the magistrate "is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the evildoer." [Romans 13:4]

On the other hand, the Bible raises a very high requirement for evidence in a case of capital murder.

The act of murder must be confirmed and corroborated by the eyewitness testimony of accusers, and the society is to take every reasonable precaution to ensure that no one is punished unjustly.

While the death penalty is allowed and even mandated in some cases, the Bible also reveals that not all who are guilty of murder and complicity in murder are executed.

Just remember the biblical accounts concerning Moses, David and Saul, later known as Paul.

Christian thinking about the death penalty must begin with the fact that the Bible envisions a society in which capital punishment for murder is sometimes necessary, but should be exceedingly rare.

The Bible also affirms that the death penalty, rightly and justly applied, will have a powerful deterrent effect.

In a world of violence, the death penalty is understood as a necessary firewall against the spread of further deadly violence.

Seen in this light, the problem we face today is not with the death penalty, but with society at large.

American society is quickly conforming to a secular worldview, and the clear sense of right and wrong that was Christianity's gift to Western civilization is being replaced with a much more ambiguous morality.

We have lost the cultural ability to declare murder - even mass murder - to be deserving of the death penalty.
Oklahoma's botched lethal injection marks new front in battle over executions
We have also robbed the death penalty of its deterrent power by allowing death penalty cases to languish for years in the legal system, often based on irrational and irrelevant appeals.

While most Americans claim to believe that the death penalty should be supported, there is a wide disparity in how Americans of different states and regions think about the issue.

Furthermore, Christians should be outraged at the economic and racial injustice in how the death penalty is applied. While the law itself is not prejudiced, the application of the death penalty often is.
Opinion: End secrecy in lethal injections
There is very little chance that a wealthy white murderer will ever be executed. There is a far greater likelihood that a poor African-American murderer will face execution.

Why? Because the rich can afford massively expensive legal defense teams that can exhaust the ability of the prosecution to get a death penalty sentence.

This is an outrage, and no Christian can support such a disparity. As the Bible warns, the rich must not be able to buy justice on their own terms.

There is also the larger cultural context. We must recognize that our cultural loss of confidence in human dignity and the secularizing of human identity has made murder a less heinous crime in the minds of many Americans.

Most would not admit this lower moral evaluation of murder, but our legal system is evidence that this is certainly true.

We also face a frontal assault upon the death penalty that is driven by legal activists and others determined to bring legal execution to an end in America.

Controversy over an execution this week in Oklahoma will bring even more attention to this cause, but most Americans will be completely unaware that this tragedy was caused by the inability of prison authorities to gain access to drugs for lethal injection that would have prevented those complications.

Opponents of the death penalty have, by their legal and political action, accomplished what might seem at first to be impossible - they now demand action to correct a situation that they largely created.

Their intention is to make the death penalty so horrifying in the public mind that support for executions would disappear. They have attacked every form of execution as "cruel and unusual punishment," even though the Constitution itself authorizes the death penalty.

It is a testament to moral insanity that they have successfully diverted attention from a murderer's heinous crimes and instead put the death penalty on trial.

Should Christians support the death penalty today?

I believe that Christians should hope, pray and strive for a society in which the death penalty, rightly and rarely applied, would make moral sense.

This would be a society in which there is every protection for the rights of the accused, and every assurance that the social status of the murderer will not determine the sentence for the crime.

Christians should work to ensure that there can be no reasonable doubt that the accused is indeed guilty of the crime. We must pray for a society in which the motive behind capital punishment is justice, and not merely revenge.

We must work for a society that will honor every single human being at every point of development and of every race and ethnicity as made in God's image.

We must hope for a society that will support and demand the execution of justice in order to protect the very existence of that society. We must pray for a society that rightly tempers justice with mercy.

Should Christians support the death penalty today? I believe that we must, but with the considerations detailed above.

At the same time, given the secularization of our culture and the moral confusion that this has brought, this issue is not so clear-cut as some might think.

I do believe that the death penalty, though supported by the majority of Americans, may not long survive in this cultural context.
Death penalty in the United States gradually declining
It is one thing to support the death penalty. It is another thing altogether to explain it, fix it, administer it and sustain it with justice.

We are about to find out if Americans have the determination to meet that challenge. Christians should take leadership to help our fellow citizens understand what is at stake.

God affirmed the death penalty for murder as he made his affirmation of human dignity clear to Noah. Our job is to make it clear to our neighbors.
R. Albert Mohler Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The views expressed in this column belong to Mohler.

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Why Christians should support the death penalty

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Opinion by R. Albert Mohler Jr., Special to CNN (CNN) - The death penalty has been part of human society for millennia, understood to be the ultimate punishment for the most serious crimes. But, should Christians support the death penalty now, especially in light of the controversial execution Tuesday in Oklahoma?

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(Amy) What is the purpose of prisons, to rehabilitate offenders or to punish? Can it be both? 

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(Amy) What is the purpose of prisons, to rehabilitate offenders or to punish? Can it be both? 

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Dissection on  the costs and arguments against capital punishment by  Innocence Project Director Barry Scheck

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Dissection on  the costs and arguments against capital punishment by  Innocence Project Director Barry Scheck

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300 Million $ per execution! Due to legal costs of multiple appeals.

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"It costs far more to execute someone than to give them a life sentence."  http://deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42

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"It costs far more to execute someone than to give them a life sentence."  http://deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42

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Famous Death-row prisoner living the "good life" in prison?

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Famous Death-row prisoner living the "good life" in prison?

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Does Capital Punishment mean "cruel and unusual punishment? This would violate the 8th amendment to U.S. Constitution. Watch video

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Does Capital Punishment mean "cruel and unusual punishment? This would violate the 8th amendment to U.S. Constitution. Watch video

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death row stories: cruel and unusual - cnn video

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Death Row Stories: Cruel and Unusual - CNN Video

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What happens when capital punishment goes wrong? All New Death Row Stories, Sunday August 16 at 10 ET.

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Taylor/

Should death penalty be abolished?

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Taylor/

Should death penalty be abolished?

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When we do not have other better ways to guarantee that those murderers
finally receive what they should receive for their actions and victims and
other people are in a safe condition, we should not abolish death penalty.

It is has been in the human society for thousands of years. As we can see,
even if we have had death penalty and some of the social problems have risen
from it, the world is not in a chaos because of that. In a word, it is
reasonable to exist on the planet for another century or two before we are wise
enough to think of other better solutions.

I think the sign to show human beings are advanced is not the abolishment
of capital punishment. We can still have it and the number people receiving it
is getting smaller. This is the sign to show advancement, in my sense.

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As a
Chinese, I know that at present, China still says yes to capital punishment,
and this is one of the reason that China will be criticized by America in its
yearly published human right white covered book. The circle in dark red is so
obvious that cannot be ignored. In my point of view, people who drew this graph
must have had some prejudice to China. Even if we are among those countries
that still approve the use of death penalty, so the cases of it are in a large
number, those who drew it could not just end up “it is hard to do the
calculation for China”. This is showing a wrong signal to the outside world
that China chooses to be different from other countries and Chinese even feel “proud”
to the existence of death penalty. All these will only add to the
misunderstanding other countries have towards China.

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It is interesting and ridiculous to see that republicans and democrats
think their opponents (each other) barbarian based on their own reasonable
standard. A person is definitely a person; a fetus is biologically a person. In
this way, killing a person can have the same consequence as killing a fetus.
Generally, republicans are for the death penalty, while democrats are for the abortion.
Politically, they have different ideas to appeal to different social groups to
win their support. But the essence of them is the same. That is why this comic
is ironically humorous. One is no better than the other.

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Numbers of execution: From 1976 to 1999, the numbers rose up. The turning
point was 1999, when the number reached its highest, 98 cases of execution that
year. Ever since 1999 to present day (2015), though there were two slight
rising, the tendency has been decreasing.

Two pie charts: It is surprising to know that the large number of people
executed and being the victims to the crime are the white people. I know that
some ethnic groups in USA do not have a good life so that they will resort to
committing crimes. These two charts are different from my former knowledge or
stereotype.
Implications: In the near future, the number of death
penalty will drop. At the same time, the white people will still be the largest
group of people involved into it.

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I
think I can draw a conclusion--- the large proportion of death roll inmates is teenagers
or people during their puberty.

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Taylor/ Execution is not legal homicide.

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Taylor/ Execution is not legal homicide.

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According
to the definition of “homicide”, it is “the deliberate and unlawful killing of one person by
another”, so many that is the reason why many people think execution is the
legal homicide. As far as I am concerned, execution is not equal to legal homicide.
Legal homicide cannot wipe out the essence of homicide, killing for killing. Homicide
is used for hatred. However, execution is different. It is the decision made by
the government or at least, based on the opinion of the public. Some people
really have bad influence on the society and cannot be forgiven. The only
solution is execution.

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Taylor/ Why is the death penalty rate in TX so high?

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Taylor/ Why is the death penalty rate in TX so high?

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I
read an article about the death penalty, in which it explained why the rate in
TX is the highest among the fifty states. The reasons are as follows: firstly,
judges of TX are elected by the public. They must make their decision based on the
pleasure of the public. In order to be re-elected by the public, they tend to
have a very strict standard when it comes to penalty; secondly, TX does not
have a very good public defender system; thirdly, TX was very late to let its
jurors consider mitigating evidence. That means a lot of people should not be
on the list of capital punishment if their mental condition or their ages were
taken into consideration.

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Cristina(Education level of Death Row inmates)

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Cristina(Education level of Death Row inmates)

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Education level is irrelevant.

I believe we should continue to have a capital punishment law under specific circumstances, a person who takes another life should be made to forfeit his or her own life.

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When we talk about this question, we shouldn't only Only take into account the issue of human nature . In fact,every question both have more complex aspects worth thinking about . I will talk about the death penalty include other aspects of the problem

1. deterrence
As everyone knows，Law is based on the the punishment mechanism . When crime cost will not let a person feel fear, law will not work . For some criminals, not the death penalty, they always had a way of returning to society
.The death penalty is the last line of defense law

2.cost
If there is no death penalty, I believe that the crime will increase than the original, but they can only receive up to life imprisonment .Prisons run by the government , the government's money comes from taxpayers . More and more crime will increase the cost with the prisons run. In this time, government will
increase taxation from people. ha, I don't hope it happen. More taxation=more company need find a way to hold cost=more unemployment=more crime.

So,when you calling cancel for the death penalty， do know maybe you will lose your work?Don't because your kindness to make hundreds of millions of people's life more worser

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There are 112 countries abrogate the death penalty from either law or practice level, in the contrast， there are 83 countries still conducting death penalty（42.56%）.

The death penalty negates the humanity, it deprive people's life legally. But without death punishment, how law can punish criminals strictly( they may think that even I kill people, I won't die, so it doesn't matter to commit a crime) In addition, country may spend a big money on prisons, some institute shows that the money spend on a criminals is 7 times on a child in a certain city of CA.

So before a better solution comes out to balance humanity, punishment and economical problem, I just keep a neutral position.

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1.We should be very careful to impose death penalty:

a. We run the risk of killing innocent people

b. Death penalty could not stop those who wants to commit crime, because we have death penalty for thousands years and crime rate is still increasing in some places.

c. It is irrational that you want teach someone a lesson but kill them.

My suggestion: let prisoners choose by themselves, death penalty  or life imprisonment without parole.

2.I have some questions: What`s reasons to influence public`s attitudes toward death penalty?

When people feel insecure they would like criminals to be sentenced death?

Do some criminal films or TV series would affect our decision about death penalty?

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Death Penalty should not be abolished (Rebecca

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Death Penalty should not be abolished (Rebecca

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I strongly agree with the opinion that Death Penalty should not be abolished. Death penalty is to publish those who do harm to other's life, safety and rights seriously  and legally. The purpose of it is to protect people's life and give the lessons to criminals. Only if we let those criminals experience the pain and fear of facing to death, they would remember that other people also just have one chance to be alive the the life of the one he or she murdered was as precious as his or hers.

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Death Penalty Debate in CT: Should it be Abolished?

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RFL weighs in on whether or not Connecitcut should abolish the death penalty.

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Terrorists who have murdered?

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The Republican Party accuses the Democratic Party to allow abortion in certain cases whereas the Democratic Party accuses the Republican Party to support the death penalty.

From my point of view you can not compare abortion with the death penalty, because abortion means that somebody (a child) gets killed that can not do something against this whereas the death penalty is a punishment for somebody who did something wrong (e.g. a murderer).

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The chamber for lethal injection

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In the U.S., capital punishment is decided by the individual state governments (voters!). What do you know about the U.S. states with the highest number of death penalty executions?

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In the U.S., capital punishment is decided by the individual state governments (voters!). What do you know about the U.S. states with the highest number of death penalty executions?

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Please read these statistics and critically analyze their implications. 

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Please read these statistics and critically analyze their implications. 

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The Elephant is the symbol of the Republican party, and the donkey, of the Democratic Party.  What does this cartoon mean? Why are the 2 patients on Intravenous fluids? 

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The Elephant is the symbol of the Republican party, and the donkey, of the Democratic Party.  What does this cartoon mean? Why are the 2 patients on Intravenous fluids? 

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Americans' attitudes about capital punishment over the years

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Americans' attitudes about capital punishment over the years

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Click to open the document symbol and read article with statistics

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Story Highlights

In U.S., 63% favor the death penalty for convicted murderers

Public tilts in favor of death penalty over life imprisonment

Support generally consistent over the last seven years

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Six in 10 Americans favor the death penalty for convicted murderers, generally consistent with attitudes since 2008. Since 1937, support has been as low as 42% in 1966 and as high as 80% in 1994.

Americans' support for the death penalty has varied over time, but apart from a single reading in 1966, the public has consistently favored it. Support ebbed from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, when the application of the death penalty was questioned and ultimately led to the Supreme Court's invalidating state death penalty laws. Subsequent to that, newly written laws passed constitutional muster and states began to use the death penalty again in the late 1970s, with support among Americans increasing to 70% or more in the mid-1980s to the late 1990s.

The broader trend over the last two decades has been diminished support for the death penalty, including a 60% reading last year, the lowest since 1972.

Over the last two decades, Democrats' support for the death penalty has dropped significantly, from 75% to 49%. Now, Democrats are divided on whether it should be administered to convicted murderers. Republicans' and independents' support is also lower now -- down nine and 18 percentage points, respectively -- though both groups still solidly favor the death penalty.
Americans Tilt in Favor of Death Penalty Over Life Imprisonment
Gallup's long-standing question asks about basic support for the death penalty, but does not explicitly mention an alternative punishment for murderers. Gallup separately asks Americans to choose between the death penalty and "life imprisonment with absolutely no possibility of parole" as the better punishment for murder. Support for the death penalty has been significantly lower using this approach, but Americans still tilt in favor of it by 50% to 45%. These attitudes are similar to recent years, but show reduced support for the death penalty from the 1980s and 1990s.

Democrats' opinions have also shifted markedly on the death penalty vs. life imprisonment question. Two decades ago, Democrats preferred the death penalty by a wide margin, but they now prefer life imprisonment by nearly the same margin. Independents' and Republicans' views have changed less, although both show increases in support for life imprisonment.
Implications
The death penalty has always been controversial, and this year, the issue made headlines again amid a botched execution attempt in Oklahoma.

Americans' support for the death penalty has stabilized at a lower level than was the case prior to 2008, and is well below the highs from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. And in recent years the public has shown only a slight preference for the death penalty over life imprisonment as the better penalty for murder. These trends toward diminished support seem to be reflected in state death penalty laws, as six U.S. states have abolished the death penalty since 2007, and no new states have adopted it.

Democrats are mostly responsible for this shift in attitudes, and thus it is not surprising that most of the states that have abolished the death penalty in recent years are Democratic leaning. The death penalty is another example of how Democrats' and Republicans' opinions on political matters have become increasingly divergent compared with recent decades, including their views of the job the president is doing and on issues such as global warming and labor unions.
Survey Methods
Results for this Gallup poll are based on 1,017 telephone interviews conducted Oct. 12-15, 2014 (for the favor/not in favor question), and 1,252 telephone interviews conducted Sept. 25-30, 2014 (for the death penalty vs. life imprisonment question). Each is based on a random sample of adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

View survey methodology, complete question responses, and trends.

Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.

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Americans' Support for Death Penalty Stable

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Story Highlights In U.S., 63% favor the death penalty for convicted murderers Public tilts in favor of death penalty over life imprisonment Support generally consistent over the last seven years WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Six in 10 Americans favor the death penalty for convicted murderers, generally consistent with attitudes since 2008.