Support for capital punishment in the United States has fallen below 50 percent for the first time in five decades, according to a new Gallup poll released on Tuesday.
The survey found that 49 percent of U.S. adults favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 45 percent oppose it. While statistically similar to last year’s 52 percent approval rate, the findings mark the first time support has dipped below the majority level since 1971, when backing was also at 49 percent, Gallup reported.
Gallup said that public backing previously hit a record low of 42 percent in 1966 and reached an 80 percent peak in 1994, during an era when a punitive approach to criminal justice transformed the nation into one of the most prolific jailers in the world.
Support for the death penalty among U. S. adults has dropped below the majority level for the first time since 1971, a new Gallup poll found. https://t.co/9LsyIshjdb
Generational and Political Divides Shape Poll Results
The decline in support is driven primarily by younger generations and Democrats. Among adults aged 50 and older, 54 percent maintain support for capital punishment, but that figure drops to 39 percent for those under the age of 30, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Long-term polling trends also highlight concerns over high costs, racial bias, fairness, botched executions, the risk of executing innocent people, and doubts raised by decades of scholarship regarding whether capital punishment truly deters crime.
“Americans' support for the death penalty has declined significantly over the past three decades, led by declines among Democrats and younger generations of U.S. adults. Now, less than a majority of U.S. adults are in favor of it, which has not been the case in over 50 years,” Gallup said.
Partisan differences have also widened over the last three decades, creating a 45-point gap between Democrats and Republicans by 2026. About 73 percent of Republicans support the death penalty, compared with 50 percent of independents and 28 percent of Democrats. Support across all three groups has dropped since 1994 during the peak of tough-on-crime politics, falling by 11 points for Republicans, 29 points for independents, and 47 points for Democrats.
U. S. Death Penalty Support Drops Below Majority Level https://t.co/H7JAIg4Opx #deathpenalty #poll #gallup pic.twitter.com/lLPJsLVSLG
The poll was conducted from October 1 to October 19, 2026, amid heightened public attention on capital punishment. The polling period took place following the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee last month, which raised constitutional questions regarding cruel and unusual punishment. It also coincided with a public backlash over a plan by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, which was subsequently cancelled.
While 27 U.S. states retain the death penalty on their books—with many going years without carrying out an execution due to lengthy appeals processes that leave prisoners on death row for years or decades—23 states have abolished the practice and four have paused it through executive action.
Stick a fork in the narrative about a surging death penalty. @Gallup has just released its annual poll on the death penalty and reports that support for capital punishment has not been lower since 1966: U. S. Death Penalty Support Drops Below Majority Level.…
President Donald Trump has been a notable exception to this broader national trend, having overseen a massive increase in federal executions during his first term and pledging to continue utilizing capital punishment during his second term.
Advocacy Groups Respond to The Data
Opponents of capital punishment pointed to the polling data as evidence of a lasting cultural shift away from the practice.
“These results are a clear indication that fewer and fewer people are buying the false rhetoric that the death penalty is effective or fair,” said Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network.
“Quite the contrary, in fact: Capital punishment introduces more violence and trauma to families, to” our communities, and to society, Vaillancourt Murphy told OSV News. “It’s encouraging to see the continued shift away from the culture of death and toward a culture of life.”
The picture from 20,000 feet: In the wake of the botched execution of Christa Pike, @Gallup measured support for capital punishment at 49%, the lowest since before the U. S. Supreme Court struck down all U. S. death penalty laws in 1972 in Furman v. Georgia. In 1971, 49% also said… https://t.co/aIKzgBrju2 pic.twitter.com/1fmU8TGX1K
Religious and advocacy groups include the Catholic Church, whose official magisterium rejects capital punishment as a violation of the inherent sanctity of human life and an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.
Pope Francis previously revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to clarify that capital punishment is morally inadmissible in the modern world “because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”