Pew report finds most American Catholics favor death penalty for those convicted of murder

A Pew Research Center survey found that 65% of American Catholics favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, with 28% who “strongly” favor it.

The research showed that support for the death penalty among U.S. adults is 6 percentage points higher than it was in April 2021, and it is about equal to where it was in August 2020 (65%).

It found that about two-thirds of all Americans (66%) favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder.

Pew surveyed 3,554 U.S. adults from July 6–12. Participants were all members of Pew’s American Trends Panel , which is a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. The margin of sampling error for the sample of respondents was plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.

The report, “Most Americans Favor the Death Penalty for Those Convicted of Murder,” found that 32% of Americans oppose the death penalty for people convicted of murder, 13% of whom reported they "strongly oppose” it.

While most Catholics favor it, 34% said they oppose it, with 15% who "strongly oppose” it.

When asked in the context of morality, 68% of all respondents said they see the death penalty as morally justified for those who have…