The proportion of Americans who back the death penalty is now at its lowest level for more than 40 years.
Fewer than half of Americans, 49 per cent, now support capital punishment for people convicted of murder, compared to 56 per cent only last year.
More than four in ten people oppose it - compared to just two in ten who opposed it in the mid-1990s. In 1994, eight in ten Americans backed the death penalty. Opposition to the death penalty is at its highest level since 1972.
White evangelical Protestants continue to back the use of the death penalty with nearly seven in ten in favour and just a quarter opposed.
White mainline Protestants are also more likely to support than oppose the death penalty.
However just over four in ten Catholics back capital punishment, while nearly half oppose it.
The Catholic Church and US Episcopal Church have campaigned against the death penalty for decades.
Last year the National Latino Evangelical Coalition became the first National Association of Evangelicals congregations formally to join the fight for repeal. The coalition urged its 3,000 member congregations to support efforts to end capital punishment across the country.
Earlier this year the US Supreme Court agreed to hear two appeals that concern the roles race and intellectual disability might play when the death sentence is passed. One of the cases involved testimony that black defendants were more dangerous than white ones.
The issue runs along political divides. Most Republicans still support it while most Democrats oppose it in cases of murder. Support for ending capital punishment has also grown among independents, according to the survey by Pew Research.
Men are also more likely to back the use of the death penalty than women. White Americans are more supportive than blacks and Hispanics.
