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 | "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) condemning a public execution of a woman for adultery." John 8:7, (NKJ) |
| "Does it make sense for the state to hire murderers to kill defenseless victims on death row, in order to prove that hiring murderers to kill defenseless victims is morally wrong?" Anon. |
| "Barbarians. That's what we have become. We kill each other and instead of mourning the tragedy we want the state to satisfy our bloodlust by killing the offender...we must learn to deal with these people in our midst - punish them, but do not become them." Posting to a feedback forum, Detroit News, 1999-MAR-2 |
Overview:
The word "capital" in "capital punishment" refers to a person's head. In the past, people were often executed by severing their head from their body.
Surveys in the US and Canada regularly show that a sizable majority of adults are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers. Depending upon the exact question asked, 65 to 80% of adults support the death penalty. In 1984, individuals who give greatest support to capital punishment were found to be older, white, male, rich, urban dwellers, politically independent and religious believers. 1 The percentage appears to increase over time when people perceive the crime rate as increasing.
A serious deficiency of almost all public opinion polls is that they generally ask too simple a question: whether the subject is in favor of the death penalty or not. They rarely offer alternatives to execution in their polling questionnaires. Public support for capital punishment declines greatly when alternatives to the death penalty are considered. The Death Penalty Information Center reported in 1993 that "Polls conducted in recent years in California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Virginia and West Virginia all concluded that people prefer various alternative sentences to the death penalty." 6 (Emphasis ours)
Ohio survey in 1997:
The Survey Research Unit of Ohio State University's College of Social and Behavioral Sciences published a news release on 1997-OCT-1. It described the opinions of Ohioans towards the death penalty. 2 The results were based on a random sampling of 805 English speaking adults who were interviewed by telephone during mid 1997-SEP. They found:
| 66% favored the death penalty for convicted murderers; 9% were in favor under certain circumstances; 17% were opposed and 8% were ambivalent. |
| 46% thought it very likely or somewhat likely for an innocent person to be executed; 47% reported somewhat or very unlikely. |
| Adults without a college degree were more likely to believe that an innocent person could be executed than were college graduates by a ratio of 50% to 27% |
| 59% would support an alternative to execution if it involved life in prison without chance of parole and a requirement that the inmate work while in prison with the money going to the victim's family. 31% supported the death penalty in preference to this alternative. An inmate working 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, over a 25 year sentence at $3.00 an hour would generate $150,000 for the family of the victim. |
| Non-college graduates (60%), those under 30 years of age (67%), females (68%), those not married (64%) and African-Americans (70%) were more likely to support this alternative than college graduates (53%), those 30 years old or older (56%), males (49%), those married (55%) and Whites (56%). |
The margin of error is less than 4% on these data.
Virginia surveys from 1989 to 1999:
A poll conducted by the Virginia Commonwealth University in 1989 asked adults in the state:
- "Do you support the death penalty for convicted murderers?"
- "Would you favor abolition of the death penalty if the alternative were a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years, combined with a restitution program requiring the prisoner to work for money that would go to families of murder victims?"
They found that a majority of subjects surveyed preferred the latter alternative.
The Center For Survey Research at Virginia Tech has conducted a series of annual "Quality of Life in Virginia" polls from 1993 to 1999. They asked the identical questions. The polls showed that support for the death penalty is high in that state, but is slipping. A strong majority of adults has consistently favored the suggested alternative:
| Percent supporting the death penalty:
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| Percent opposing the death penalty:
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| Percent supported the suggested alternative:
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U.S. national poll in 1993:
The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit agency located in Washington, DC. They noted in a 1993-APR report that:
| A national survey in the U.S. was conducted in 1993 by Greenberg/Lake and the
Tarrance Group. They revealed that, if given two options, the percentage of
Americans who favor capital punishment is:
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| 45 states and DC have a provision for life sentences without any chance of parole for 25 years. | ||||||||||
| 33 states have a true life imprisonment provision which excludes the possibility of parole at any time. | ||||||||||
| Such information is often withheld from jurors in capital cases. "In 23 of the 29 states which utilize sentencing by the jury in capital cases, there is an absolute prohibition against any evidence or argument on parole." Many juries, thinking that the accused might be released in 7 years, select the death penalty. | ||||||||||
| States which have abandoned the death penalty, on average, have not observed an increase in the homicide rate. | ||||||||||
| The margin of error in the national poll is 3.1% 6 |
Sponsored link:
U.S. national poll circa 1997:
The Survey Research Program of the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University in Texas was published in the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. It was placed online by SUNY in Albany, NY. The subjects were first asked "Are you in favor of the death penalty for persons convicted of murder?" 73.4% of the subjects said yes. Male, white, middle-aged, middle-class, suburban, mid-west, Republicans respondents tended to be more in favor of capital punishment. Of that 73.4% who were in favor of the death penalty, the researchers then asked a second question: "If you knew that murderers would be given a true life sentence without the possibility of parole, would you continue to favor the death penalty?" 75.7% still favored capital punishment. Thus, a slim majority (55.6% of the total population) would favor the death penalty over a "life sentence without the possibility of parole." This is higher than the 49% reported in the 1993 national survey.
The difference in poll results was probably caused by differences in the specific wording of the questions asked. The 1993 poll talked about no parole ever. The implication is that the only way that the inmate would get out of prison would be in a pine box. Other polls indicate that many adults mistrust the penal system; they believe that a "sentence without the possibility of parole" really means that the inmate would be released on parole after many years.
U.S. national poll in 2001:
An ABC News/Washington Poll was released on 2001-MAY-2. It shows a public ambivalence towards the continuation of the death penalty. When asked whether or not they supported the death penalty, the public responded 63% in favor. This is a major reduction in support from the 80% level, seven years previously. Of even greater potential importance is that if life without parole is offered as an option, response is a statistical dead heat: 46% favor the death penalty; 45% favor life without any chance at parole. The ABC News/Washington Post poll also determined that most American adults believe that:
| The death penalty does not act as a deterrent. |
| The death penalty is applied unfairly across jurisdictions. |
| Innocent people are sometimes executed. |
51% of the public would support a nationwide moratorium while a commission studies whether the death penalty is being administered fairly. When they were told that just such a moratorium and study was underway in Illinois, their support rose to 57%. 9
Statement by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
At their second biennial Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which started at Orlando, FL, on 1991- AUG-28, the ELCA adopted a statement on the death penalty. The ELCA is a mainline/liberal Christian denomination. They state that God authorizes the state to kill individuals when "failure to do so constitutes a clear danger to society." But they ask whether it is possible to administer the death penalty justly. "For the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, following Jesus leads to a commitment to restorative justice" as an alternative to the death penalty. "...It is because of this church's ministry with and to people affected by violent crime that we oppose the death penalty. Executions focus on the convicted murderer, providing very little for the victim's family or anyone else whose life has been touched by the crime. Capital punishment focuses on retribution, sometimes reflecting a spirit of vengeance. Executions do not restore broken society and can actually work counter to restoration." (Emphasis in the original). 4
Statement by the United Church of Christ:
In 1969, 1973, 1977 and 1979 the General Synod of the UCC adopted resolutions opposing capital punishment. The church's Office for Church in Society, Commission for Racial Justice and the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries proposed a resolution "Call for abolition of the death penalty." It was adopted by the General Synod in 1999-JUL. The resolution says, in part:
"WHEREAS, there is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty brings about real healing for victims' families and, in fact, public opinion strongly supports life imprisonment without parole along with some form of restitution for victims' families as a more meaningful gesture toward healing;..."
"THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Twenty-second General Synod of the United Church of Christ reaffirms the long-standing opposition within the United Church of Christ to the death penalty, including a resolution by the Council for Christian Social Action in 1962 and resolutions by the Seventh, Ninth, Eleventh and Twelfth General Synods and urges the abolition of capital punishment."
Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP):
This is a non-profit agency located in Tequesta, FL. They are opposed to the death penalty, believing "that as a society we are obligated to do better than to respond with a gut primal response, regardless of how natural that response may feel...our justice system is currently a retributive justice system which only heightens the pain and deepens the wounds of the families of victims of murder, the families of perpetrators, and the perpetrators themselves."
They suggest that individuals convicted of capital murder be incarcerated for at least 25 years before being considered for parole. During that time, they should be required to work at "jobs which are not slave-like and allow for some dignity and purpose of life." Part of their earnings would pay for their imprisonment, and another part would go to a restitution fund that would help victims of crime and the families of murder victims. No state has created such a restorative justice program. 5
Sponsored links:
References:
- J.E. Dison, "Changing Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment, 1972- 1982," presented to the American Society of Criminology, 1984. Cited in GSS at: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/GSS/bib/bib585.htm
- Ohio State University Derby Hall, Room 0126, Survey Research Unit, 154 N Oval Mall, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Columbus, OH 43210-1373. Phone: 614-292-6672; FAX: 614-292-6673; Email: lavrakas.1@osu.edu
- "Virginians say they want an alternative," at: http://www.vadp.org/poll.htm
- "The Death Penalty," statement by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, (1991) at: http://www.elca.org/dcs/death.html
- "CUADP," Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty at: http://abolition.org/www.cuadp.org/index.html Their essay on death penalty alternatives is at: http://abolition.org/www.cuadp.org/altern.htm
- "Sentencing for life: Americans embrace alternatives to the death penalty," Death Penalty Information Center, at: http://www.essential.org/dpic/dpic.r07.html
- "Attitudes toward the death penalty for persons convicted of murder," at: http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/1995/pdf/t255.pdf This is an Acrobat PDF file. You can obtain a free software to read these files from Adobe.
- "Public attitudes toward crime and criminal justice-related topics," at: http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/1995/tost_2.html
- "ABC News/Washington Post poll: The death penalty revised," 2001-MAY-2.
Copyright © 1997 & 2001 incl. by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2001-JUL-2
Author: B.A. Robinson
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