A recent Gallup poll of Americans from all 50 states shows that a majority of Americans still support the use of the death penalty. Though down from a peak of 80 percent support in 1994, this latest poll of 1,105 adults found 61 percent supporting the continued use of the death penalty, with 37 percent opposing, and just 2 percent undecided.
However, though the penalty is still enjoying fairly wide support, implementation has become problematic, with a nationwide shortage of the drugs used for lethal injection, the most popular means of execution. In some states like Texas and Virginia, prison officials have been forced to trade drugs back and forth in order to obtain the proper mix for the lethal cocktail, while Ohio and Nebraska’s attempts to obtain the drugs overseas have been met with opposition from the Food and Drug Administration.
The shortage is primarily due to most of the major suppliers deciding to no longer manufacture the drugs used for executions. With many of them based in countries that have outlawed capital punishment or, at least, doing business with such countries, the pressure to no longer be a party to executions became too great. With a majority of Americans still supporting the death penalty, it shouldn’t be expected to go away any time soon. However, as supplies continue to dwindle, expect to see states scrambling to develop new chemical mixes in order to find human substitutes for the banned compounds.
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