Support for death penalty in California at lowest point in 50 years

After a series of botched executions raised questions about the use of capital punishment across the United States, support for the death penalty in California is nearing an all-time low among state voters, according to the findings of a research poll released Friday.

Fifty-six percent of California voters are in favor of keeping the death penalty, the lowest percentage since 1965, according to the study conducted by the Field Poll.

Roughly 10% of state voters had no opinion on the matter in both years.

Support for the death penalty in California reached a high in the mid-1980s, with more than 83% of voters supporting the use of capital punishment. That number has dropped sharply in recent years, falling from 70% in 2010.

A state ballot measure to ban the death penalty in California was also narrowly defeated in 2012.

The study, conducted through phone interviews of 1,280 California voters in six languages, follows a federal ruling that the state’s use of the death penalty constitutes cruel-and-unusual punishment.

In July, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney ruled the dysfunction in the state’s use of capital punishment was unconstitutional, as inmates sentenced to be executed are often subject to decades-long delays.

California’s system, “where so many are sentenced to death but only a random few are actually executed, would offend the most fundamental of constitutional protections,” Carney wrote in his ruling.

The study also asked voters what should be done in response to Carney’s ruling, and 52% were in favor of speeding up the state’s execution process, while 40% said they would prefer to see the death penalty replaced with life imprisonment.

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