American Confidence in the Death Penalty Eroding

A growing percentage of Americans across the country are having thoughts about the death penalty as an effective form of punishment, according to a new poll released Monday.

The survey, conducted by RT Strategies, found that 40 percent of Americans believe the death penalty should never be used, while 58 percent think its usage should be stopped at least temporarily while procedures are looked at.

The poll also found that a number of Americans believe there are mistakes in the death penalty system. Nearly 90 percent of people believe an innocent prisoner has been executed in recent years and nearly 70 percent think that this is an unavoidable danger of having a capital punishment system.

The poll was funded by the Death Penalty Information Center. Richard Dieter, the Executive Director of the DPIC, said the results confirmed what his group has long believed.

"Public confidence in the death penalty has clearly eroded over the past 10 years, mostly as a result of DNA exonerations," he said.

It appears that jurors and state governments are taking notice of the shift in popular opinion. The DPIC said that death sentences have fell nearly 60 percent since 2000, with executions dropping by 45 percent as well. The group said that the size of death row has fallen more and more each year as well, with the number of death sentences given in 2006 reaching a 33-year low.

The poll's release comes on the heels of a number of recent stories that have placed the death penalty back into national focus. Advocate groups told ABC News that nearly a dozen inmates on Alabama's death row are without any legal representation. One man, Larry Smith, was sentenced to death by a jury after only 30 minutes of deliberation. Despite police misconduct and woefully inadequate representation, Alabama did not provide Smith with an attorney to appeal his conviction. Finally, a state court ordered a new trial just this year.

Dieter said it is precisely cases like this that challenge American confidence in the system.