Half of all respondents, 50%, said that the death penalty is unfairly applied, while 47% said it was applied fairly, the poll determined, noting the figure marks the first time in the poll’s history that more respondents characterized the application of the death penalty as unfair than fair.
The proportion of Americans who believe the death penalty in the US is applied unfairly rose by five percentage points since 2018, officials stated.
A majority of Republican respondents, 68%, believe the death penalty is fairly applied, in comparison to 28% of Democratic and 46% of independent respondents.
However, most Americans, 53%, support the death penalty in murder cases, marking the lowest support for the death penalty in murder cases since 1972.
A majority of Republican and independent respondents support the death penalty in murder cases, while less than one-third of Democratic respondents support the practice, the poll found.
A plurality of Americans, 39%, believe that the death penalty is not utilized frequently enough, the report said. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of respondents agreed the death penalty is used too often whereas an equal number said it is used the right amount.
The question was posed as part of Gallup’s annual crime survey, which polled 1,009 US adults between October 2-23. The poll maintains a margin of error of plus-or-minus four percentage points at a 95% confidence level.