Washington D.C.: For the first time in more than three decades, a majority of Americans favor life imprisonment without parole over the death penalty as a punishment for murder. A Gallup poll released this week found that 60% of survey respondents said life without parole is the preferable sentence for a person convicted of murder, while 36% said the death penalty is preferable.
This is the first time in Gallup’s 34 years of tracking that respondents have favored life imprisonment over the death penalty. In the 1980s and ’90s, Americans showed a clear preference for the death penalty for convicted murderers. The latest survey was conducted in October and polled 1,500 adults living throughout the United States.
The past five years have seen a shift among all major subgroups toward favoring life imprisonment, Gallup said. Two-thirds of women and a little over half of men surveyed support life imprisonment over the death penalty. Almost 8 in 10 Democrats favor life imprisonment without parole to the death penalty, while almost 6 in 10 Republicans favor the death penalty.
But while life imprisonment is generally seen as a better punishment for murder, a majority of Americans still approve of the use of the death penalty, Gallup found. Fifty-six percent said they approve of the death penalty as a punishment for murder, and 42% said they oppose its use. CNA
