Overall, the findings revealed that the effect of race on support for capital punishment remained after controlling for all of the 11 other factors that were tested as explanations of the racial difference in capital punishment support. Moreover, trend data indicated that the racial divide in death penalty support persisted across the past three decades. The authors concluded that Black and White death penalty support and changes in levels of support seem to be equally influenced by the same social forces, demonstrated by their parallel trends. The authors warn that the results could indicate a much larger problem: a crisis of legitimacy with the criminal justice system that must be addressed by the scholarly community. Data on capital punishment opinions were drawn from 3 sources: the 1972 through 1996 cumulative dataset of the NORC General Social Surveys (GSS) (N=32,937) and 2 local surveys of venirepersons called for jury duty in Tampa, FL (N=636 and N=697). The 11 variables under analysis as potential explanations for the racial divide in death penalty support were: socioeconomic status, subcultural status, political ideology, religious orientation, abortion attitudes, social welfare attitudes, distributive justice, experience with the criminal justice system, fear of crime and victimization, media exposure, punitiveness, and attribution styles. Data were analyzed using logistic regression models. Future research should extend this exploratory study and attempt to replicate its findings. Tables, references