Yet another recent study indicates that support for the death penalty is on the decline, while its significant risk to the wrongfully convicted continues to move into the spotlight.
The Pew Research Center reports that just 55% of U.S. adults support the death penalty, the lowest figure since the 1970s.
Meanwhile, as support for the death penalty declines and the number of executions each year continues to fall, rates of violent crime have also fallen, and were at their lowest rate in four decades in 2012. It’s clear that the death penalty isn’t able and isn’t needed to deter violent crime.
In addition, a surge in exonerations in the past 25 years has drawn attention to the real risk of executing an innocent person. 144 innocent people have been freed from death row in the United States since 1976!
The more people learn facts like these about the death penalty, the less likely they are to continue supporting it. Find out how you can help spread the facts about the death penalty in Nebraska!