More Americans Oppose Death Penalty, Says Group

Claiming that "public confidence in the death penalty has clearly eroded over the past 10 years," a group opposed to capital punishment released a new survey Wednesday showing that the majority of Americans - 58 percent - would favor a moratorium.

"Whether it is concern about executing the innocent, beliefs that the death penalty is not a deterrent, moral objections to taking human life, or a general sense that the system is too broken to be fixed, the bottom line is the same: Americans are moving away from the death penalty," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).

The telephone survey was conducted by RT Strategies in March.

Dieter said the "most surprising fact" about the poll results was that "almost 40 percent of the American public believe that they would be disqualified from serving on a death penalty jury because of their moral beliefs.

"That shows a distance or a separation from the death penalty by a fair percentage of the American public," he told Cybercast News Service.

DPIC noted that "jurors in capital cases must be interrogated about their positions on the death penalty."

"If they are opposed to it in all cases, they will not be permitted to serve. The resultant juries look different than society at large because they will have less minority members, less women, and none of those who represent one side on this divisive issue," the group said.
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