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By Joshua Rhett Miller
Senior Reporter
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Less than half of Americans support the death penalty for convicted murderers—marking the lowest level since 1971, a poll released Tuesday reveals.
A Gallup survey of 1,200 U.S. adults conducted in the aftermath of Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike found that 49 percent now support capital punishment for convicted murderers, compared to 45 percent who oppose. The current level of endorsement fell three percentage points from a year ago, but represents the first time approval has dipped below majority level since the same share of 49 percent was recorded in 1971.
A record-low of 42 percent Americans supported the death penalty in 1966, according to Gallup, which has been tracking U.S. opinions on capital punishment since 1936. The highest share of proponents was recorded in 1994 at 80 percent. Advocates told Newsweek the most recent figures reflect a fundamental and ongoing shift in how most citizens view executions.
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"This is the second poll in a row to show that we are at a pivotal turning point in public opinion on the death penalty, as Americans have been horrified by the recent botched executions, as well as the proposal to livestream an execution," Laura Porter, executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said in a statement. "At the same time, both Republican and Democratic governors have been granting clemencies at an increasing pace. The death penalty is being seen for what it is, an utter failure."
Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, said Tuesday's poll indicates most Americans have grown "increasingly uncomfortable" with executions.
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"The more you know about capital punishment, the less you like it, and I am not just talking about recent failed executions," Bonowitz said in a statement. "The truth is that the death penalty fails us as a public policy morally, economically and socially."
Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research for Amnesty International USA, said the poll reflects a "dramatic decline" of support for the death penalty for more than three decades.
"The more people learn about how this cruel, inhuman and degrading sentence is fundamentally broken and inherently arbitrary, discriminatory and riddled with mistakes, the less they are inclined to support it," Mazzola told Newsweek in a statement. "The media attention around the botched execution of Christa Pike and the history of botched executions within the state along with the Trump administration's callous suggestion of livestreaming the first military execution in more than 60 years brought these issues to the forefront and exemplify how there is no humane way for the state to kill someone. It is past time for the USA to join the 113 countries around the world and abolish this sentence once and for all."
The Reverend Jeff Hood, who has served as a spiritual adviser to inmates on death row in Texas, said he wasn't surprised by the Gallup poll.
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"Imagine that, cruelty is going out of vogue," Hood wrote Newsweek in an email. "On many lonely nights, I've watched executions that few people even knew were happening. Now, more and more people are opening their eyes. Forty-nine percent? It sounds like a country waking up from a moral nightmare. I do not doubt that more and more Americans are going to keep on walking out of the chamber."
Gallup polled respondents from October 1 through October 19, beginning one day after Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital that her attorneys believe pooled in her arms instead of her entering her bloodstream on September 30. The convicted murderer has said she remains in constant pain since the botched procedure.
Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 slaying of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, later regained consciousness after being rushed to a hospital following the failed execution. Her attorneys described her recovery late last month as uncertain while noting Pike had pneumonia and a blood clot in one arm, among other injuries.
"There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain," Pike said in a statement released by her legal team on October 30. "My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn't just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul."
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A message seeking comment from Pike's attorneys was not returned Tuesday.
The poll comes just days after California Governor Gavin Newsom said he'll commute more than 500 death sentences statewide to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations of our legal system and diminishes each of us," Newsom wrote in an open letter to state residents. "I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency."
California's death row population of 548 inmates represents the largest in the Western Hemisphere, Newsom said. The state's constitution requires California Supreme Court approval to grant clemency to anyone convicted of a felony more than once, meaning judges would need to authorize 382 of the commutations, or about 70 percent.
"I also acknowledge that this clemency action will anger and hurt some Californians," Newsom's letter continued. "This will always weigh heavily on me. As governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution. For this reason, I am compelled to follow my conscience and, as authorized by our constitution, take this action for the welfare of the State of California."
Support for the death penalty, meanwhile, has fallen across all political parties, according to Gallup's poll. Just 28 percent of Democrats support capital punishment today, compared to a high of 47 percent in 1994. Some 73 percent of Republicans currently endorse executions for convicted murderers, down from roughly 80 percent since the 1990s.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Edward T. Cummins
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