Not Clear That Oklahoma Execution Will Affect Death Penalty Attitudes

The botched execution of a convicted killer in Oklahoma in late April — in which the individual was reported to have writhed in pain and convulsed for nearly 45 minutes before dying — has again raised the issue of Americans’ attitudes toward the death penalty. …

Sixty percent of Americans in our last survey in October said that they support the death penalty in cases of murder in the U.S. …

Gallup has measured attitudes toward the death penalty since 1936. At that point, deep in the Depression and with Franklin Roosevelt in the White House, 59% of Americans supported the death penalty in cases of murder. And, as noted, here we are some 78 years later, and that number is almost exactly the same. CONT.

Frank Newport, Gallup

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