39% still believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to crime.

Just 6% of Americans think that the U.S. has never executed an innocent person, yet a whopping 83% still believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment.

Those are among the results of a new AngusReid poll released Nov. 9. According to the survey of just more than 1,000 adults, 81% believe the U.S. has actually executed an innocent person. Nonetheless, 39% still believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to crime (Republicans are most likely to believe in this idea, 53%, according to the poll results), while 35% disagree that the penalty deters crime.

Moreover, respondents also said that they believe capital punishment should be used to punish rapists (62%) and kidnappers (52%).

Interestingly, the AngusReid numbers differ significantly with those gathered this month by Gallop, which found support for the death penalty at just 64%.

You can find the results of the AngusReid poll here.

This article appears in November 5 • 2010.

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