GALLUP POLL CONFIRMS INCREASE IN SUPPORT FOR DEATH
PENALTY
Today the Gallup Organization released its annual Moral
Values and Beliefs Poll which indicated that “Across a wide range
of questions on the topic, Americans show a slight but noticeable increase
in death penalty support. Compared with a year ago, more Americans say
they support the death penalty as punishment for murder, more choose
it over life imprisonment as the preferred punishment for murder, and
more Americans believe the death penalty is applied fairly in this country.”
“Additionally, a majority of Americans now say the death penalty
is not imposed often enough. There has also been a significant decline
since 2003 in the percentage who believe that innocent people have been
executed under the death penalty in the past five years. The increase
in support for the death penalty is apparent across most societal subgroups.”
The poll is available at: http://www.gallup.com/nl/?16393,AlertSP,5/19/2005
This information confirms a view expressed over the past several years
by the California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, that public
support for the death penalty has remained strong and may actually be
growing, in spite of widely reported claims by anti-death penalty groups
that nation’s death penalty process is racially biased and that
innocent people are routinely sentenced to death.
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation President, Michael
Rushford,
and Legal Director, Kent Scheidegger
are available for comment at: (916) 446-0345.
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