Baxter Oliphant of the Pew Center has this article with the above title on the Pew Factank blog.

The question wording in this poll is the traditional wording that Gallup began using in the 1930s.  As noted several times on this blog (see, e.g., this post) this wording understates actual support for the death penalty.  It is primarily useful for tracking relative changes over time simply because it has such a long history.  When people are asked the real question, as in the poll noted in the prior post, support is much stronger.

Here is an interesting fact from the crosstabs:

I would not put too much emphasis on one poll, but an 8% jump among independents in two years is quite an increase.  That is trend worth watching for confirmation in other polls and for continuation over time.