text: After a 20-year decline in favorability, the percentage of Americans who support the death penalty has once again dropped below the 50% mark. 
   
   According to a new Pew Research Center poll, just 49% of the US now supports capital punishment. 
   
   The last time this few Americans supported the death penalty was 45 years ago, in 1971, when the Baltimore Colts were Super Bowl V champions and Richard Nixon was Time's Man of the Year. 
   
   With a few exceptions, the rate has fallen steadily every year since 1994, when support peaked at 80%. 
   
   While the overall rate has fallen considerably since the mid-nineties, politics still play a big role in who supports the death penalty and who doesn't. In the Pew poll, 34% of Democrats said they support it while 72% of Republicans did. 
   
   The declining level of support may stem from recent negative press surrounding the most popular form of the death penalty: lethal injection. 
   
   In 2014, multiple inmates on death row were the victims of botched executions when the cocktail of drugs meant to sedate, paralyze, and ultimately kill the men failed to work properly. Some inmates struggled for an hour or more, convulsing on the sedation table before coroners eventually declared them dead of a heart attack. 
   
   In the two years since, the US federal government has yet to come up with a widely agreed upon alternative to lethal injection drugs, and so fewer executions are being carried out overall. 
   
   In 1999, 98 people received the death penalty. This year, only 15 have met the same fate. ||||| For the first time in almost half a century, support for the death penalty has dipped below 50 percent in the United States. 
   
   Just 49 percent of Americans say they support capital punishment, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted from late August to early September. That represents a seven-point decline in about a year and a half. Support peaked at 80 percent in 1994. 
   
   The death penalty has had majority support among Americans for 45 years. The last time support was as low as it now stands was in 1971. Pew has surveyed Americans on the subject for the past two decades and relies on the polling organization Gallup for older data. ||||| Note: For 2018 data on views of the death penalty, click here. 
   
   As the Supreme Court prepares to hear the first of two death penalty cases in this year’s term, the share of Americans who support the death penalty for people convicted of murder is now at its lowest point in more than four decades. 
   
   Only about half of Americans (49%) now favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 42% oppose it. Support has dropped 7 percentage points since March 2015, from 56%. Public support for capital punishment peaked in the mid-1990s, when eight-in-ten Americans (80% in 1994) favored the death penalty and fewer than two-in-ten were opposed (16%). Opposition to the death penalty is now the highest it has been since 1972. 
   
   Though support for the death penalty has declined across most groups, a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 23-Sept. 2 among 1,201 adults finds that most Republicans continue to largely favor its use in cases of murder, while most Democrats oppose it. By more than two-to-one, more Republicans (72%) than Democrats (34%) currently favor the death penalty. 
   
   Two decades ago, when majorities in both parties favored the death penalty, the partisan gap was only 16 percentage points (87% of Republicans vs. 71% of Democrats). 
   
   And, for the first time in decades, independents are as likely to oppose the use of the death penalty (45%) as they are to favor it (44%). The share of independents who support capital punishment has fallen 13 points since last year (from 57%). 
   
   This shift in views among independents is particularly pronounced among those who lean toward the Democratic Party (a 10-point decrease in support) and those who do not lean to either party (down 16 points). Support for the death penalty among independents who lean toward the GOP is little changed from March 2015 (73% now, 70% then). 
   
   Even as support for the death penalty has declined across nearly all groups, demographic differences remain: Men are more likely to back the use of the death penalty than women, white Americans are more supportive than blacks and Hispanics, and attitudes on the issue also differ by age, education and along religious lines. 
   
   More than half of men (55%) say they are in favor of the death penalty and 38% are opposed. Women’s views are more divided: 43% favor the death penalty, 45% oppose it. 
   
   A 57% majority of whites favor the death penalty for those convicted of murder (down from 63% last year). But blacks and Hispanics support it at much lower rates: Just 29% of blacks and 36% of Hispanics favor capital punishment. 
   
   There are only modest difference by age and education in support for the death penalty, with 18- to 29-year-olds somewhat less likely to support it (42% favor) than those in older age groups (51% of those 30 and older). Those without a college degree are more likely than those with at least a college degree to favor the use of the death penalty in cases of murder (51% vs. 43%). 
   
   White evangelical Protestants continue to back the use of the death penalty by a wide margin (69% favor, 26% oppose). White mainline Protestants also are substantially more likely to support (60%) than oppose (31%) the death penalty. But among Catholics and the religiously unaffiliated, opinion is more divided: 43% of Catholics favor capital punishment, while 46% oppose it. And while 50% of those who are religiously unaffiliated oppose the death penalty, 40% support it. 
   
   A more detailed study last year of attitudes toward capital punishment found that 63% of the public thought the death penalty was morally justified, but majorities said there was some risk of an innocent person being put to death (71%) and that the death penalty does not deter serious crime (61%). 
   
   Note: View the methodology for the Aug. 23-Sept. 2 survey and the topline. (PDF). 
   
   Topics: Supreme Court, Death Penalty, Gender, Social Values, Race and Ethnicity
target: – For the first time in 45 years, Americans who support the death penalty can't count themselves among the majority. Just 49% of Americans polled from late August to early September said they supported capital punishment for people guilty of murder, while 42% said they opposed it, according to the Pew Research Center. Recent botched executions by lethal injection may be responsible for the drop in support from March 2015, when 56% of Americans backed the death penalty, reports Business Insider. But support has actually fallen across the political spectrum since the mid-1990s, when support reached 80% as violent crime and murder rates rose, per the Washington Post. Some 57% of white Americans now support the death penalty, compared to 29% of blacks and 36% of Hispanics, according to the poll of 1,201 adults. Men, older Americans, and those without a college degree are also more likely to support the death penalty. But just 34% of Democrats support capital punishment, compared to 71% two decades ago, reports the New York Times. Some 72% of Republicans support it, down from 87%, and 44% of independents support it, down from 57%. As support has fallen, so have the number of executions. There have been just 15 so far this year, including 12 in Texas and Georgia. (Ohio is set to resume executions after a three-year break.)