ABSTRACT
Polls show that approximately two-thirds of Americans support the death penalty for a “person convicted of murder.”1 Support for the death penalty has waxed and waned over the past thirty years, but since the early 1970s, a solid majority of Americans have said they support it. As for opposition to the death penalty, it is minimal. The Gallup Poll shows that no more than 30 percent of Americans have opposed the death penalty in any year since 1976.2 In short, Americans want the government to put murderers to death. But if you favor the death penalty, finding an interest group working on your behalf is difficult. A quick Google search indicates that there are not very many interest groups in the United States working to increase the number of murderers put to death. A search for death penalty interest groups yields the names of scores of national groups including Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Catholics Against Capital Punishment, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, as well as dozens of state groups including Coloradoans Against the Death Penalty, Delaware Citizens Against the Death Penalty, Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, and Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing. There is no group called the Campaign for More Death Sentences, or the National Coalition to Increase State Killing, or People of Faith for the Death Penalty. To be sure, there are some groups (including groups of police officers and crime victims) that support the death penalty. But even a cursory investigation indicates that death penalty opponents are much better represented by interest groups than death penalty supporters; and this despite the fact that the latter outnumber the former by a margin of approximately two to one.
