A majority of Americans still support the death penalty, even as support has declined over time, according to several major polls. A Pew Research poll conducted in July found that 66 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for a person convicted of murder, while 32 percent oppose it. The survey found that 68 percent of respondents said the death penalty is morally justified in cases of murder, even while 59 percent said they believed the death penalty did not deter people from committing serious crimes.
The poll surveyed 3,554 U.S. adults. A 2025 Gallup poll found closer margins, with 52 percent of respondents in favor of the death penalty for people convicted of murder, and 44 percent not in favor. The poll surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults.
However, the poll noted that support for the death penalty has generally followed a downward trend in recent decades, compared with its peak of 80 percent of respondents in favor in 1994. A more recent Gallup poll from June found that a slight majority of 52 percent of Americans said they believed the death penalty was morally acceptable, which marked a record low. These polls were conducted before a botched execution attempt in Tennessee brought renewed scrutiny of capital punishment.
The death penalty has been making headlines this week following the failed execution attempt of Christa Pike on September 30, who survived after receiving two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital. Pike was initially hospitalized in critical condition, but her attorneys said on Tuesday that she was conscious and speaking. It is not yet clear what went wrong during the execution attempt, though Pike’s attorneys alleged that the IV lines were not correctly placed.
Pike’s was the second failed execution attempt in Tennessee this year. In May, the state called off the execution of Tony Carruthers after execution personnel spent more than an hour trying unsuccessfully to establish an IV line. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended the state’s remaining 2026 executions pending a third-party review, but other states are set to continue with their planned executions.
President Donald Trump has been a vocal proponent of capital punishment. In January 2025, he signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to pursue the death penalty for federal crimes “of a severity demanding its use,” calling capital punishment an “essential tool” for deterring and punishing the “most heinous crimes.” Jamaal Howard is set to be executed by lethal injection in Texas on October 7, the first execution scheduled in the U.S. since Pike’s failed execution. Howard, 46, shot and killed convenience store clerk Vickie Swartout during a 2000 robbery in Silsbee, Texas, when he was 20 years old.
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