Most American Catholics favor the death penalty, despite the opposition of the Vatican and the US bishops’ conference, a new Pew Research survey shows. The poll found that 58% of Catholics support the use of the death penalty for convicted murderers, while 41% oppose it. Only 36% of the Catholic respondents said that capital punishment is morally wrong. Ironically, atheists (65%) and agnostics (58%) were most likely to oppose the death penalty.