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U.S. Poll Finds Growing Aversion to Death Penalty
NEW YORK - A clear majority of U.S. voters - 61 percent - would choose a punishment other than death for murder if given a choice, the Death Penalty Information Center said Tuesday as it released the results of "one of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted" of U.S. citizens' views on capital punishment.
The "death chamber" at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas. A clear majority of U.S. voters - 61 percent - would choose a punishment other than death for murder if given a choice, the Death Penalty Information Center said. (AFP/File/Paul Buck) In a national poll of 1,500 registered voters conducted by Lake Research Partners, alternative punishments to execution included life with no possibility of parole and with restitution to the victim's family (39 percent), life with no possibility of parole (13 percent), or life with the possibility of parole (nine percent).
The researchers said the survey "shows growing support for alternatives to the death penalty compared with previous polls."
The research shows that in states with the death penalty, a plurality of voters said it would make no difference in their vote if a representative supported repeal of the death penalty; and a majority (62 percent) said either it would make no difference (38 percent) or they would be more likely to vote for such a representative (24 percent).
"For decades, politicians have equated being tough on crime with support for the death penalty, but this research suggests voters want their elected officials to be smart on crime, use tax dollars wisely, and fund the services they care about the most," Richard Dieter, executive director of Death Penalty Information Center, told IPS during a telephone news conference.
"We see a real openness to considering life with no possibility for parole as a punishment for murder and a real awareness among Americans of the many problems with the death penalty," said pollster Celinda Lake. "It is likely we will see Americans moving away from support for the death penalty as states and local governments grapple with tight budgets and as today's younger voters and Latinos move into the core of the electorate,"
Since the start of 2009, many states, such as Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Montana, Kansas, and New Mexico considered legislation to repeal the death penalty, and it is expected that trend will continue in 2011.
Voters ranked the death penalty the lowest on a list of budget priorities and expressed strong support for replacing the death penalty with life without parole, if the money saved was used to fund crime prevention programs.
In states with the death penalty, a plurality of voters said it would make no difference in their vote if a representative supported repeal of the death penalty, and a majority said either it would make no difference or they would be more likely to vote for such a representative. In 2011, about five states are expected to consider repeal legislation.
The poll dug deeply into citizens' thinking about the death penalty and the problems they see in this punishment. For decades, elected officials have equated being tough on crime with support for the death penalty, but this research shows that capital punishment may no longer be a "third rail" of politics.
Additional key findings from the polling research include:
Cost emerged as an important concern for a strong majority of respondents. Sixty-eight percent said cost was a very or somewhat convincing argument against the death penalty. Voters ranked emergency services, creating jobs, police and crime prevention, schools and libraries, public health care services, and roads and transportation as more important budget priorities than the death penalty. Hispanic voters were among those most willing to replace the death penalty with an alternative punishment. They responded most strongly to moral objections to the death penalty rooted in faith, as well as the argument that the death penalty is particularly unfair along racial lines.
The poll explored the information that the public uses to make up its mind about the death penalty and the problems they see with this punishment.
Some of the public's top concerns about the death penalty were that it is applied unevenly and unfairly; it subjects victims' families to lengthy trials and years of appeals that interfere with the healing process; and it risks executing the innocent.
Spending millions of dollars on the death penalty, at a time when states are cutting back on services such as police forces, schools, and public health, and when life in prison would cost less, was also of concern to voters.
Moral and religious objections to the death penalty were strong among Latino and Catholic voters.
The nationwide poll was conducted in May 2010 with a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percent.
The Death Penalty Information Center, founded in 1990, is a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment.
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28 Comments so far
Show AllThe reason so many politicans are "Tough on Crime" is that they can not handle having any competition.
They are not really the "Free market" champions they claim to be.
LOL. Love that comment. It's a keeper!
Seriously, if a state wishes to keep the death penalty, I think the only persons eligible for such penalty should be elected politicians and persons appointed to office by them. Or perhaps a financial test should be applied: assets of at least 1.5 million (after exhausting all appeals. That way the taxpayers could recover the cost of the execution. It would be little like the Chinese practice of charging for the executioner's bullet.
Thou shalt not kill....I think that is pretty clear. Two wrongs don't make a right...killing them, won't bring your loved one back..what if he really is innocent ?
All of this, against the one reason we do kill, which is vengeance. Seems to me, that vengeance is a sin in itself, so other than that , there is no reason to put people to death. Not to mention it cost's over a million dollars to kill someone in our system.
The whole procedure is barbaric, and primitive, and evil, oh well why shouldn't it be, America is turning into a barbaric, evil empire, war mongoring country ,so I guess in our primitive way, we kill.
Bush killed 151 men while he was Govenor of the State of Texas, which was a warm-up for the million Iraqi's he has killed. I would hate to be in his shoes when he dies...if there is a Hell, he will spend Eternity there. Just in case there is no Hell though, I think we need to make him pay here on Earth for his War Crimes. That's for another post !
I think you're post is great. I agree with the whole thing. No question about how barbaric we are with our death penalty and our policies on torture (of course, as we all know, we don't torture under Obama anymore -- wink, wink).
Well said
The more conservative members of our body politic, the ones who usually insist on the efficacy of the death penalty as a deterrent, and who claim to nearly worship the founding fathers have roundly ignored this daddy for a long time
“that it
is better a hundred guilty persons should escape than one innocent person should suffer. Benjamin Franklin
I suspect that even in the face of this poll both Franklin's ideal and the "will of the people" will continue to be ignored.
U.S. Poll Finds Growing Aversion to Death Penalty
Good! Who knows when they will be coming for you.
There was an agrarian time in Britain when all the land was owned by Lords. The people/peasants worked the land for the Lords. The Land owners decided to turn to sheep ranching which required minimal labor. A lot of people where then out of work with no way to feed themselves and their families. Some became highway robbers, etc.. Draconian laws were enacted where theft was a capital offense. A lot of people lost their lives for being made poor.
They used to hang boys for stealing a loaf of bread in the old British Empire.
They decided this not very Humane so started using overseas colonies as Penal colonies. Fully a quarter of all Migrants from the British isles to the 13 colonies in the Americas were "Criminals".
There a good chance that those "Law and order" types who boast that their family has been in the USA since prior to the Revolution were descended from "Criminals" that would have been HUNG otherwise.
Hum, then maybe there is a genetic factor for our violent tendencies.
Interesting. Australia, ex-penal colony, is one of our biggest partners in the war on terror.
"A clear majority of U.S. voters - 61 percent - would choose a punishment other than death for murder if given a choice"
so would a sizable percentage of all murderers . . .
Life without parole is not a good alternative. A prisoner in for life without any hope of ever getting out makes a very difficult prisoner for the prison staff to deal with because he has nothing to lose.
It's sad that only in America do people think that the only alternative to killing our fellow citizens is subjecting them to a living death without hope.
It's even sadder that nobody wants to address the question of why this county has such a huge population of violent people, far greater than any other country.
You hit the nail on the head ! Our country is full of really disturbed people. Child molesters... why in the world do we rape more of our own children than in any other place on Earth. Only in a few countries in Africa that rape young women during thier uprisings are equel with us in rape. We have the most angry children. I think it is because of the lack of good education, and having so many PTSD citizens raising our kids, that can not seek treatment, because we don't provide it anymore. We leave people on thier own, all alone, when it comes to mental health . We look at it as a weakness, and don't want to put money into programs that would help these people. We allow a vicious cycle to continue over, and over, because we don't want to face our ugly truths.
Why do we have so many angry violent people. Perhaps it is from years of widdling away human developement programs, and social programs. Everybody wants to cut programs that help society. The corporations want strong healthy people ,the rest are of no use. Put them in prison, and label them Felons, and they have a zero future. Many of them are in prison for non-violent drug crimes. Most countries don't treat their people so badley. A society is judged by how they take care of thier sick, and thier old. According to that, we are failures !
Many people put thier loved ones away in an institution, and forgrt about them...what kind of human being does that to thier own family. If we can do that, then attacking and killing Iraqi's 10,000 miles away is easy.
"It's even sadder that nobody wants to address the question of why this county has such a huge population of violent people, far greater than any other country."
Because the answer is too complicated. There are a number of reasons for that, which is why nobody wants to address it.
"A clear majority of U.S. voters - 61 percent - would choose a punishment other than death for murder if given a choice"
Good news! Asisde from Saudi Arabia and Iran, only 39% of Americans are living in the dark ages.
Now how about doing something about the social dysfunction that creates so many criminals? Naw, that would be too enlightened for barbaric Americans. Kill 'em all - let god sort 'em out...
The other problem is what to do with sociopaths (like the Bush clan and other corporate/government/military psychos) - where do we put them so they will 'do no harm' to the rest of society? And how do we get laws passed to prosecute the worst offenders? (the egregiously wealthy ones - all wealth is stolen from society, so all wealthy people are guilty to some degree)
Don't bet on the US emerging from the Dark Ages any time soon - after all, fully 80% claim to be highly superstitious...
Can I suggest lobotomies?
This skull and crossbones fashion fad has got to end soon. It is the despicable insignia of the death culture makers. Let's make it "cool" to support a fashion statement promoting the sacredness of life. (Not meaning the anti-abortionist phony "pro-life" movement).
I would like to see the results from the state of Texas where the former governor won re-election even though he has killed more men on death row than any other governor and even put to death a man who was very probably innocent. Such demented politicians are loved by the Texans. Don't forget that the worst president in the history of the US was also a cold blooded killer as governor of Texas. Disgusting state and disgusting people.
10/4
No, offense but I don't buy the results of this poll. If Amerikans' aversion to death were growing, would they be cheering their warmongering? Would they be supporting their paid killers? Would they be rooting for Israel? Would they be calling for Big Daddy to nuke Iran? Would they be killing each other on the streets?
This is to define who it is ok to execute as opposed to other forms of killing. The importance here is that the death penalty means killing one of your own and with the suspension of habeus corpus it brings that a little closer to home.
One disturbing part of hese polls is that many people oppose the death penalty because it is so expensive. That problem could be easily remedied by going back to the old days in this country when there were no appeals. If you were convicted of murder, they took you out of the courthouse and hanged you right then and there.
The big problem with the death penalty is that those who really should get the death penalty - the big criminals who do so much damage to society and people - seem to always get away. Except we did get some of them at Nuremberg.
Death to the death penalty.
It has no place anywhere but a barbaric country.
A society that wishes to become civilized does not solve the problems of heinous crimes by putting the perpetrators to death.
Back in the early 1980's, an Episcopalian minister down in Texas wrote a very poignant article that argued against the death penalty. His reasons for arguing against it were as follows:
A) Having the death penalty creates a whole new set of victims. Even people who're guilty of committing the crime(s) for which they've been executed have friends and loved ones who grieve for them when they're gone.
B) Many prisoners act worse as a result of being traumatized by the execution of an inmate, especially the ones who end up digging the grave and participating in the burial of the executed prisoner.
C) By executing people who're guilty of a heinous crime, the state puts itself down to the exact same level of brutality as the criminal.
D) Many priests and ministers, etc., who've presided over the funereal/memorial/burial/crematorial services of an executed inmate have become profoundly depressed and felt compelled to quit the religious life altogether.
E) In societies where the death penalty is implemented, the quality of life is coarsened and cheapened by quite a bit.
It seems the only killing sanctioned on this site is the murder of millions of the unborn.
What about euthanasia?