How many states include the death penalty

Nine-in-ten of those who favor the death penalty say it is morally justified when someone commits a crime like murder; only a quarter of those who oppose capital punishment see it as morally justified. A majority of Americans have concerns about the fairness of the death penalty and whether it serves as a deterrent against serious crime. More than half of U.

Opinions about the death penalty vary by party, education and race and ethnicity. Views of the death penalty differ by religious affiliation. Around two-thirds of Protestants in the U.

Opposition to the death penalty also varies among the religiously unaffiliated. Support for the death penalty is consistently higher in online polls than in phone polls. Survey respondents sometimes give different answers depending on how a poll is conducted. In a series of contemporaneous Pew Research Center surveys fielded online and on the phone between September and August , Americans consistently expressed more support for the death penalty in a self-administered online format than in a survey administered on the phone by a live interviewer.

This pattern was more pronounced among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents than among Republicans and GOP leaners, according to an analysis of the survey results.

Phone polls have shown a long-term decline in public support for the death penalty. In phone surveys conducted by Pew Research Center between and , the share of U. Phone surveys conducted by Gallup found a similar decrease in support for capital punishment during this time span.

A majority of states have the death penalty, but far fewer use it regularly. As of July , the death penalty is authorized by 27 states and the federal government — including the U. Department of Justice and the U. The three states with a governor-imposed moratorium are California , Oregon , and Pennsylvania. The first state to abolish the death penalty was Wisconsin , which made the punishment illegal in Most recently, Washington, Delaware , Maryland , Connecticut , and Illinois have all abolished capital punishment.

Florida is one of 30 states that have the death penalty. The first execution in Florida was in Since , after the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, Florida has executed 99 convicted murderers, including notorious serial killer Ted Bundy on January 24, On June 14, , Governor Rick Scott signed the Timely Justice Act of , which speeds up the process of capital punishment by creating tighter time frames for the sentenced to make appeals and imposes reporting requirements on case progress.

As of November , offenders are on death row. Does California have the death penalty? Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the state of California. Between and , California carried out executions. States and Capital Punishment. Texas Crim. Significant Litigation Over the past decade, several U. Atkins v. Virginia Ring v. Arizona Roper v. Simmons Kennedy v. Louisiana Baze v. Rees Glossip v. Gross Hurst v. This website uses cookies to analyze traffic and for other purposes.

You consent to the use of cookies if you use this website. The Connecticut Supreme Court subsequently ruled in August that the death penalty violated the state constitution. The Court reaffirmed that holding in May and reiterated that the state's remaining death row prisoners must be resentenced to life without possibility of parole. On August 2, , the Delaware Supreme Court held that the state's capital sentencing procedures were unconstitutional and struck down Delaware's death penalty statute.

Supreme Court review of the decision. In December , the court ruled that its decision applied to the 13 remaining prisoners on the state's death row. On October 11, , the Washington Supreme Court declared the state's death penalty statute unconstitutional, saying that it was applied in an arbitrary and racially discriminatory manner. In May , the New Hampshire legislature voted to abolish the death penalty. However, the repeal was not retroactive, leaving one person on the state's death row.