Check thisHarris Poll on Capital Punishment   for substantiation that 2/3 of Americans favor Capital Punishment. Strangely, in 1965, only 38% supported the death penalty-- as of Dec 2003, it is 69%, though in 1997, for some reason, 75% supported it, and 53% felt we needed even more--
Only 36% feel we need more capital punishment today--

Two things are curious and disturbing--53% feel that the death penalty is not much of a deterent--and 95% believe that innocent people are convicted of murder. White respondents believed that 11% of those convicted of murder were innocent, black respondents felt that 23% were innocent.

So we overwhelmingly support the death penalty, even though we don't believe deters murder, and we know that a substantial number of innocent people are convicted--