After a 20-year decline in favorability, the percentage of Americans who support the death penalty has once again dropped below the 50% mark. 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%). 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. 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. A 57% majority of whites favor the death penalty for those convicted of murder (down from 63% last year).  For the first time in almost half a century, support for the death penalty has dipped below 50 percent in the United States. 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%).
– 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.)