In general, it is losing support, although it remains popular in certain states. For example, she continues to have the support of a majority in Alabama, where the second execution of the year in the state took place last week.
“We will talk about executions in the news, but it is not the most important news, it is not a subject that people talk about a lot,” illustrates Richard Fording, professor of political science at the University of Alabama.
For the United States as a whole, support for the death penalty has fallen from 80% in 1994 to 53% in 2023, according to Gallup polls.
Although it remains a possible sentence to impose in 27 states, 6 of them have decided to officially put a pause on it.
In fact, a minority of States actually apply the punishment.
“We now know that we don’t always get the verdict right,” says Robin M. Mahler, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), which compiles data on the death penalty. The convictions and executions of innocent people shook public opinion. Technical failures too.
The role of racism in death sentences has also been studied: capital punishment was carried out more when the condemned victim was white, for example. The social background of the criminals also has an impact.
On the other hand, for conservatives, it is a necessary punitive measure in relation to the seriousness of the crime committed, in a country where the sentences are, in general, particularly harsh.
In Alabama, there are a lot of evangelicals, recalls Mr. Fording. “Conservative Christians greatly cherish the Old Testament with its notion of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” he explains.
The number of death sentences fell from 166 in 2022 to 21 in 2023. But more than 2,200 people remained on death row at the end of 2023 — more than a quarter were in California, where Gov. signed a moratorium in 2019.
“It’s a great paradox, but the vast majority of people sentenced to death in the United States are not executed and never will be,” notes Mugambi Toy of the law department at the University of Southern California. They die of “natural causes”, behind bars, since in practice, a death sentence is equivalent to a life sentence. »
These sentences without the possibility of parole – unconstitutional in Canada – are also a preferred solution for serious crimes by 60% of Americans, according to Gallup.
Donald Trump has made no secret of his support for the death penalty, which he would like to see applied to a greater number of crimes. During his time at the White House, protocols were modified to facilitate executions for those sentenced to death for federal crimes.
A group of conservatives has released a “draft transition plan” in the event of a Donald Trump victory, Project 2025. In it, they stress that if elected, the administration should do everything in its power to execute the 44 federal prisoners currently on death row.
Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 on a promise to abolish the federal death penalty. A moratorium was announced shortly afterward, but it didn’t hold: In January, the Justice Department asked to be able to seek the death penalty against the alleged perpetrator of a mass shooting in Buffalo, for hate crimes among other things.
Not for the presidential race. But the death penalty can count in some more local elections. “The United States is the only country in the world where prosecutors and judges are elected,” recalls Mr. Jouet. However, it is the prosecutors who decide whether to seek the death penalty.
The statements on the death penalty are generally part of an intransigent approach towards criminals put forward by the Republicans, underlines the associate professor.