Death penalty opinion split in US as firing squad execution looms

Public opinion on the death penalty in the United States is divided, as President Trump first backed and then retreated from livestreaming a firing squad execution and a planned December execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan puts capital punishment back in the spotlight. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, and is held on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The renewed debate follows two botched Tennessee lethal injections this year, when the state struggled to find veins to administer death-inducing drugs to Christa Pike and Tony Carruthers. A day after Pike's failed execution, Gov. Bill Lee said Tennesseans were disappointed. "The people of Tennessee have determined that the death penalty is an appropriate penalty for the most heinous crimes in this state," he said, adding that his job is to make sure sentences are carried out.

About two-thirds of Americans support the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to a Pew Research Center poll from this summer. PRRI, a nonpartisan nonprofit, says those who favor the punishment tend to be Christian, white and Republican.

Poll numbers hide nuance

Emory University history professor Daniel LaChance says the overall numbers mask a wide range of opinions. "Support for the death penalty in the United States is a mile wide and an inch deep," said LaChance, author of "Executing Freedom: The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in the United States." When polls offer alternatives such as life without parole, 60% of Americans support that over the death penalty; the figure drops further when monetary support for victims' families is an option.

Gallup polling in 2025 found 52% of Americans support the death penalty for murder convictions — the lowest share in more than 50 years. Pew's July study also found 59% of respondents said the death penalty does not deter serious crimes, versus 39% who said it does.

Wrongful convictions and few executions

The Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks the practice without taking a position on it, has counted 203 people since 1972 who were exonerated after being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. "Those are just the ones we know about," said executive director Robin Maher. "We don't know how many innocent people were executed before we learned about their claims." Maher said the system's fallibility, cost and inaccuracy have shifted public opinion.

Six states carried out the 31 executions in 2026 even though 27 states legally allow capital punishment, with Florida accounting for more than half. Maher said that gap shows Americans are disenchanted. "More often than not, they are finding it is not the right answer to violent crime," she said. "Executions on the other hand, are the result of what a handful of elected officials in just a few states are doing."

Texas has carried out the most executions since the 1970s, while Michigan holds the longest-running abolition, banning the practice in 1847.

Livestream debate

An October poll from ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos found 52% of Americans support Hasan's execution, but 80% say it should not be livestreamed. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced earlier this month that Hasan would be executed publicly; the U.S. had not held a high-profile public execution in 90 years. LaChance said quasi-public executions once drew up to 10,000 viewers, but the growing use of medicine such as anesthesia made pain in public spaces seem scandalous and "barbaric."

A U.S. official, speaking to NPR anonymously out of fear of retribution, said Trump was talked out of a livestream both because it was against American values and because of concern the tape would appear on Jihadi websites, increasing recruits and endangering U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Source: NPR News.