- 3-May-01

Support for Death Penalty Eases

By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane - Overwhelming support for the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh masks this reality: Public approval of capital punishment has declined while the proportion of Americans who favor replacing the death penalty with life in prison has increased in recent years, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. With the execution of McVeigh less than two weeks away, the poll suggests that Americans remain deeply conflicted and divided over America's ultimate punishment. About half of all respondents favored life in prison over the death penalty. And a similar proportion also supported halting all executions until it can be determined that capital punishment is being applied fairly across the country. The survey also found strong public support for key arguments used by supporters and opponents of capital punishment. Most respondents believed, for example, that it's only right that a "killer is killed," while a large majority also acknowledged that innocent people! sometimes are executed, beliefs that tug many Americans in opposite directions and underscore how far the nation is from achieving a consensus on the death penalty. A total of 1,003 randomly selected adults were interviewed April 20 to 24 for this survey. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Other recently released polls have shown that most Americans favor executing McVeigh. A survey by the Pew Research Center found that 75 percent of the public backed the death penalty for McVeigh, while a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll pegged support even higher, at 81 percent, including 22 percent who said they opposed capital punishment in general but supported it in McVeigh's case. At the same time, the Post-ABC News poll found that overall support for the death penalty has declined in the wake of falling crime rates and the highly publicized releases of death row inmates who were convicted of murders they did not commit. More than !six in 10 respondents -- 63 percent -- continued to favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, down from 77 percent five years ago. And when Americans were asked which punishment they would most prefer for convicted murderers -- the death penalty or life in prison without parole -- support for legal executions fell even further. Fewer than half -- 46 percent -- supported capital punishment, while 45 percent favored life in prison, up from 38 percent two years ago. Fifty-one percent of those interviewed favored halting all executions until a commission is established to determine whether the death penalty is being administered fairly, while 43 percent opposed any halt. Fairness issues troubled even death penalty advocates: More than four in 10 supported a moratorium. But the proportion who favored a halt in executions rose to 57 percent when respondents were reminded that the governor of Illinois recently stopped all executions in his state while a commissio!n reviews how the death penalty has been applied.Nineteen states are considering moratoriums on the death penalty. The deeply ambivalent feelings Americans hold toward the death penalty were apparent when respondents were asked to evaluate various claims made by supporters and opponents. Seven in 10 -- 72 percent -- agreed that the death penalty is fair "because it prevents killers from killing again." Six in 10 said the death penalty is justified because "it gives satisfaction and closure to the families of murder victims." Nearly as many agreed that the death penalty is the most appropriate punishment for convicted killers "because it's an eye for an eye -- the killer is killed." But those views were balanced by equally strong reservations about the way the death penalty is applied. Nearly seven in 10 -- 68 percent -- said the death penalty is unfair because "sometimes an innocent person is executed." Nearly as many -- 63 percent -- agreed that capital punishment is !unfair because "it's applied differently from county to county and state to state." But by 53 percent to 37 percent, respondents rejected one of the most frequent criticisms of the death penalty, that capital punishment is "applied unequally to blacks compared to whites." Six in 10 blacks agreed with that criticism. Americans are increasingly skeptical that capital punishment deters murder. Fewer than half of respondents -- 43 percent -- agreed that capital punishment acts as a deterrent, down from 51 percent a decade ago and 62 percent in the mid-1980s. Instead, 52 percent said the death penalty is not a deterrent, the first time since the question was initially asked in 1985 by the Gallup Organization that a majority of Americans doubted the power of capital punishment to discourage murder. And while a 56 percent majority of death penalty advocates said it is a deterrent, four in 10 disagreed. By relatively modest but persistent margins, men were more likely to gener!ally favor capital punishment, support the death penalty over life imprisonment as a punishment for murder and oppose a law replacing capital punishment with life in prison without parole. Fewer than half of all men -- 44 percent -- supported a halt to executions, an action favored by 58 percent of women. Men also were far more likely to see revenge as a justification for the death penalty: 65 percent said capital punishment is fair because "it's an eye for an eye," a view shared by 46 percent of women.