American support for the death penalty is at the lowest level recorded in more than 40 years, according to a new Gallup poll released Tuesday.

Sixty percent of Americans support the death penalty for convicted murderers, compared to 57 percent who supported it in 1972. Support in the survey peaked in 1994, when 80 percent of Americans supported the death penalty.

Eighty-one percent of Republicans and 47 percent of Democrats currently favor the death penalty. Support for the death penalty has declined among Democrats the most in the last 25 years, according to Gallup.

Fifty-two percent said they felt the death penalty is applied fairly, while 40 percent said they thought it was applied unfairly.

Many states are running low on their supplies of drugs used for lethal injections, delaying some executions.

The Gallup poll, conducted via phone Oct. 3-6, surveyed 1,028 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.