Support for Death Penalty Lowest in 40 Years

support for the death penalty among Americans is lower then at any point in the last already years you have to go back forty years to get to a point where americans are this negative about the death penalty this is according to a new Gallup poll that was out yesterday raw story has a good summary of this support for the death penalty and a four-decade low although most Americans three out of five still favorite sixty percent say they back capital punishment for convicted killers this is the lowest figure dating back to November UHV 1972 when the death penalty had a slightly lower 57 percent support from Americans by 1994 support for the death penalty had increased about eighty percent and since then it's just been on a steady decline 44 percent a responded to the Gallup survey said the death penalty isn't being imposed often enough interesting above the 50 American States 32 implement the death penalty 18 plus Washington DC have abolished it Louis before we get my delve more deeply into this the number sixty percent roughly is that high-low are you surprised that it will work with your reaction to the numbers I guess well I think we're just seeing a really slow I am slow change right I mean so I guess I'm not surprised I think this is a trend that will continue and hopefully hopefully we can get rid of it within not within 10 years everywhere but yeah I'm I'm not sure about that will if you even look within the US at the 32 states that have the death penalty over one-third US capital punishment deaths have occurred in Texas which is five times as many as in any other state and then you have Virginia Oklahoma and Florida but after those first four states the other 28 art contributing much in terms of the death penalty it really is focused incredibly in these more states now if you look around the world Louis if you look at Amnesty International they say 140 countries have abolished the death penalty and one of the one of the conversations we often have around the death penalty is the US is one of very few countries at our level of development it still has the death penalty and doesn't have single-payer health care and that this should really tell us something and i was looking today at the list that what countries have the death penalty and what countries don't and it really says a lot Louis take a listen to this which countries allow the death penalty here's a few Afghanistan Bahrain Bangladesh Chad Botswana China congo cuba Egypt ethiopia India Iran iraq Qatar Yemen Sudan Syria Uganda somalia who doesn't allow the death penalty Louis Austria Belgium Canada Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Luxembourg Netherlands New Zealand Norway my home country of Argentina Portugal South Africa Spain Switzerland turkey are you seeing something here Lewis where it seems almost like the US is an out liar in a sense in the list of countries that have the death penalty out definitely I just I think it's a result the bat hardcore conservative mentality and that's the only reason it's persisting in in the state is well that's exactly the point I was hoping you would make which is this is not so we can say that it's related to poverty and development we can have that conversation say the US is an out liar but it more interesting to look at it in a different way which is that conservative ideology where even if we say that countries around the world are generally speaking more liberal than than the US a lot of these countries including Afghanistan iran-iraq Yemen Qatar some in the African countries have different different types up conservatism some religious based some based on other areas of society but it is really this extreme conservatism that that seems to be what is the link their and when you look at many of the countries that have abolished the death penalty you see a very different it's just a totally different culture and lifestyle yeah I think that's really the connection we need to draw from that it's it's it's mostly just an ideological one what why do we still have this I exit the executing innocent people the high cost have the death penalty sometimes prolonging victim suffering through multiple appeals to figure out what exactly will be the ultimate penalty for a perpetrator a crime no evidence that it deters crime totally arbitrary in terms of when and where it is applied disproportionately used against minorities just to name a few reasons why it may be time to get rid the death penalty hopefully that happens hopefully these numbers are indicative that