Support For The Death Penalty Is Shrinking In The U.S.

There is a bit of good news for those of us who oppose the death penalty. It seems that support for giving criminals the death penalty is shrinking in the Unites States. Back in 1996, support for the death penalty had reached a high of 78% (with only 18% opposing it), but by 2011 that support had dropped by 16 points to 62% supporting and 31% opposing it. And by 2013, support for the death penalty had dropped another 7 points (to 55% for and 37% against).

These figures come from the Pew Research Center, which periodically surveys Americans on the issue. The latest survey was done between March 21st and April 8th of 2013 of a nationwide sample of 4,006 adults.

Now some of you may be thinking that this shrinking of support may just be an illusion, since support for the death penalty has tended to rise and fall in this country. But that fluctuation of support in the past has been mainly among Whites in America, who made up the vast majority of the population. But the White portion of the population is also shrinking, and at some time not too far in the future, Whites are no longer going to be in the majority in this country. This demographic change cannot be stopped, or even slowed -- and it is this change that is probably driving the current shrinkage in support for the death penalty.

Not that while Whites still have a significant majority supporting the death penalty (63%), minority groups do not. Both Blacks and Hispanics show an opposition to the death penalty that is double-digits above their support for it. Non-Whites know that our criminal justice system is not fair to everyone -- and that Non-Whites have a much greater chance of not getting a fair trial, and a much greater chance of being given the death penalty than Whites.

And since they know this as fact, there is very little likelihood that they will start to support the death penalty in the future. That means that this current demographic change happening in this country could be the factor that finally eliminates the death penalty as an option in this nation (even in death penalty loving states like Texas, who will be among the first of the states to experience the demographic change).

I believe this is a good thing. Supporting the death penalty separates the U.S. from most other developed nations (who no longer allow the death penalty), and puts us in the company of nations like China, Iran, Uganda, North Korea, etc.). For me, killing people to show people that killing is wrong simply makes no sense.

And we have undoubtably put some innocent people to death in our zeal to support executions. Our criminal justice system is far from perfect, and hundreds have been released from prison recently after being proven to have been innocent. That's bad enough, but executing an innocent person is unforgivable and can never be rectified.

But perhaps the best reason to do away with the death penalty is because it just doesn't work. Supporters of the death penalty will tell you that it discourages others from committing murders. That is just not true. The fact is that the murder rate in states with the death penalty is significantly higher than in states without the death penalty (see chart below). Also note that ten of the eleven states with the highest murder rates in the United States are death penalty states. This would not be true if the death penalty was a real deterrent.