USA - California. Support for death penalty in California lowest in 50 years.

Support for death penalty in California lowest in 50 years. According to a Field Poll released today support for capital punishment has reached its lowest level since 1965. Only 56% of respondents said they favored keeping the death penalty, down from 69% in 2011. Support for the death penalty among Californians peaked in the mid-1980s at 83%. The strongest opposition to keeping the death penalty came from voters under 30, African and Asian Americans, and Democrats. In 2012, a referendum to replace California's death penalty with life without parole almost passed, coming up short in a 52-48% vote. The survey found 34 % in favor of abolishing the death penalty and 10 % with no opinion. In 2011, the same poll found 68 % in support of the death penalty and 27 % opposed. The current majority is the lowest on record since 1965, when 51 % of the state's registered voters said they favored capital punishment. The state has more than 750 inmates on death row, has not had an execution since 2006, when a federal judge found multiple flaws in lethal injection procedures and staff training. The Field Research Corp. said its telephone survey of 1,280 registered voters, conducted from Aug. 14 to Aug. 28, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.