Majority of Americans Say Torture is Immoral

The Constitution Project has released the results of a poll it commissioned on Americans’ attitudes about torture.

According to the poll results, 69 percent of Americans agree (53 percent strongly) that “torture is immoral.” Along partisan lines, 78 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Independents and 56 percent of Republicans share this view.

On the question of whether torture should not be used when other interrogation methods may be available to obtain information from terror suspects, 76 percent of respondents agree.

Respondents also were asked whether they approve of a proposal to “strengthen U.S. laws against torture by making it clearer to the CIA and to the military what behavior is legal and what is illegal, when interrogating people who may have information about terrorists.” 67 percent said they would approve such a proposal. Again, along partisan lines, 75 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of Independents and 56 percent of Republicans approve.

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, former chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, recently commented on the results of The Constitution Project’s poll.

This survey clearly shows that Americans are appalled at torture. I continue to believe our use of torture following 9/11 did nothing to improve our national security, and in fact made us less safe. It’s time we finally learn from previous actions and end government-sponsored use of torture once and for all.

The complete poll is available here.

Earlier this month, Senator Feinstein announced that she’ll introduce legislation to prevent the future use of torture by the government.