The StandDown Texas Project

News Coverage of the Gallup Poll

The Guardian posts, "Six in 10 Americans support death penalty despite recent botched injections," by Jessica Glenza.

Though Americans’ opinions held steady over the past six years, support for executions has slid considerably since the mid-1990s, from an all-time high of 80% approval.

Democrats are responsible for a majority of the shift: 49% support the death penalty now, down 26 points from 1994. Over the same period, support among Republicans slipped from 85% to 76%.

Support is nowhere near its lowest point. In 1967, fewer than half of Americans approved of the death penalty.

As in many surveys, changing a question’s framing changes the answer. Support for the death penalty drops when people have the option to choose life in prison without parole. When given the alternative, half of Americans favor the death penalty.

"American support for the death penalty hasn’t budged since botched executions," is by Mark Berman for the Washington Post.

A new Gallup poll, released Thursday, shows that American support for the death penalty hasn’t really moved in the last five years:

It is worth noting that the gap between those who support and oppose the death penalty was more narrow in a Pew Research Center survey taken last year, which found that 55 percent of Americans supported it and 37 percent opposed it.

Public support for the death penalty has dropped over the last two decades, something found by the Pew poll last year and the Gallup poll this year. Gallup’s survey found that four out of five Americans supported the death penalty in 1994, a number that has declined considerably since then. (The Pew survey shows a similar dip since the mid-1990s.)

"Support for death penatly holds steady," is by Benjamin Goad at the Hill.

“The broader trend over the last two decades has been diminished support for the death penalty, including a 60 percent reading last year, the lowest since 1972,” Gallup concluded.

There remains a partisan divide in support for the death penalty, with 76 percent of Republicans in favor of the practice and just 49 percent of Democrats supportive of capital punishment for murderers, the survey finds.

But among those of all political stripes, including Republicans, support for the death penalty has waned over recent decades.

Earlier coverage of this year's Gallup polling begins with the preceding post.

More From Gallup on the 2014 Polling

Gallup posts, "Americans: 'Eye for an Eye' Top Reason for Death Penalty," is by Art Swift.

Americans who favor the death penalty most often cite "an eye for an eye" as the reason they hold their position, with 35% mentioning it. "Save taxpayers money" and "they deserve it" tie as the second-most-popular reasons Americans volunteer in this open-ended measure, at 14% each.

And:

While a majority of Americans tilt in favor of the death penalty, the one in three Americans who oppose it also have a diversity of views as to why the ultimate penalty should not be used. "Wrong to take a life" has been the top reason for opposing it since 1991, by comfortable margins.

"The Trend Line: Five Key Findings on the Death Penalty in America," is a video report from Gallup on the poll findings.

Earlier coverage of this year's Gallup polling on capital punishment attitudes begins at the link.

Historical tracking of public opinion on the death penalty by Gallup and last year's Gallup Poll are also available.

Related posts are in the public opinon polling category index.

Latest Gallup Polling Results

Gallup posts, "Americans' Support for Death Penalty Stable," by Jeffrey M. Jones.  Here's the beginning:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Six in 10 Americans favor the death penalty for convicted murderers, generally consistent with attitudes since 2008. Since 1937, support has been as low as 42% in 1966 and as high as 80% in 1994.

Americans' support for the death penalty has varied over time, but apart from a single reading in 1966, the public has consistently favored it. Support ebbed from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, when the application of the death penalty was questioned and ultimately led to the Supreme Court's invalidating state death penalty laws. Subsequent to that, newly written laws passed constitutional muster and states began to use the death penalty again in the late 1970s, with support among Americans increasing to 70% or more in the mid-1980s to the late 1990s.

The broader trend over the last two decades has been diminished support for the death penalty, including a 60% reading last year, the lowest since 1972.

Over the last two decades, Democrats' support for the death penalty has dropped significantly, from 75% to 49%. Now, Democrats are divided on whether it should be administered to convicted murderers. Republicans' and independents' support is also lower now -- down nine and 18 percentage points, respectively -- though both groups still solidly favor the death penalty.

Historical tracking of public opinion on the death penalty by Gallup is at the link.  Last year's Gallup Poll is also available.

Related posts are in the public opinon polling category index.

New California Public Opinion Polling

The Field Poll news release on death penalty polling, with detailed results, and Field Poll Tabulations are available at the links.

The Sacramento Bee reports, "Field Poll: Death penalty support slips in California," by Sam Stanton.  Here's an extended excerpt:

Support for the death penalty in California is at its lowest point in nearly 50 years, although more than half of the state’s registered voters still favor it, a new Field Poll has found.

The poll found 56 percent still believe the death penalty should be kept as a punishment for serious crimes, with 34 percent opposed and 10 percent undecided.

The findings come as states nationwide are grappling with a shortage of drugs used for lethal injections and critics who say some recent executions have been botched and left inmates suffering as they died. They also come after a July ruling by a federal judge in Los Angeles that found lengthy delays in executing California inmates have made the death penalty unconstitutional in the state.

Support for the death penalty in California has been eroding steadily for years, falling from a high of 83 percent in 1985 and 1986 Field Polls to its current level, the lowest since a 1965 survey found only 51 percent approval. The last Field Poll done on the issue, in 2011, found 68 percent in favor of keeping the death penalty, compared to 27 percent opposed.

“To me, it’s interesting that a small plurality is continuing to support the death penalty,” said poll director Mark DiCamillo, who noted that the Field Poll has asked the same question of voters since 1956, when support for the death penalty was 49 percent, the only year it has fallen below 50 percent.

AP coverage is, "Support for California death penalty slipping," by Juliet Williams, via the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

Support for California's death penalty has fallen to its lowest level in more than 50 years after a judge ruled it unconstitutional, according to a Field Poll released Friday.

The poll found 56 percent of registered voters support keeping the death penalty, a decline of 12 percentage points in just the last three years, when Field found 68 percent support for the death penalty. The new survey found 34 percent of respondents support abolishing it and 10 percent have no opinion.

It is the lowest level of support since 1971, when 58 percent of Californians supported the death penalty and 34 percent opposed it.

U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in Los Angeles ruled in July that California's death penalty is unconstitutional because it takes too long to carry out, and that unpredictable delays are arbitrary and unfair. The judge noted that since the current death penalty system was adopted more than 35 years ago, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death but only 13 have been executed.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports, "Support for death penalty falls to 50-year low, Field Poll shows," by Bob Egelko.  There is an infographic at the link.

The poll numbers may actually understate public opposition, in view of the narrow defeat of a 2012 ballot measure that would have repealed California's death penalty and replaced it with life in prison without parole. More than 47 percent of those who went to the polls supported the proposal.

A spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which backed the 2012 initiative, said the latest survey is a further indication that capital punishment is losing support.

"I think that the public is becoming very aware that the California death penalty is broken beyond repair ... that we're spending millions on a system that fails to deliver the promise of justice, is wildly unfair, doesn't deter crime, and it will always risk (taking) an innocent life," said the spokeswoman, Daisy Vieyra.

And:

The Field Poll also asked voters about a federal judge's ruling in July that declared California's death penalty unconstitutional because of delays of 25 years or more in carrying out executions, which the judge said have led to an arbitrary and irrational system.

Asked how the state should respond, 52 percent said it should speed up the execution process, 40 percent said it should replace the death penalty with life without parole, and 8 percent voiced no opinion.

"Poll: Support of death penalty in California slipping," is by Howard Mintz for the San Jose Mercury News.  There are infographics at the link.

The Field Poll found that Republicans, conservatives and Central Valley voters were more likely to back retaining the death penalty, while Democrats, Bay Area residents, younger voters and African-Americans favor its abolition.

Despite the declining death penalty support, groups that have organized to get rid of the law in California have not cemented plans to try another ballot measure. Only voters can scrap the death penalty because it is in the state constitution.

Earlier coverage from California begins at the link.  You can also jump to news of the 2012 SAFE California ballot initiative, in which repeal of capital punishment narrowly failed.

Denver Post Polling Released

"Poll: Death penalty not major factor for Colorado voters," is by Jon Murray in today's Denver Post.

While the death penalty has been at the forefront of debate in the Colorado governor's race this year, a new Denver Post poll suggests the issue may lack bite.

It's failing to play much of a role in most voters' decisions, with only 18 percent of likely voters in the SurveyUSA poll saying the issue is a major factor. Most of those who say the death penalty is a major factor are backing Bob Beauprez, the Republican challenger to Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Hickenlooper has faced criticism from death penalty supporters since he granted Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap a reprieve on his death sentence in May 2013, leaving the decision to the next governor. Recently Hickenlooper suggested he might grant Dunlap clemency if he does not win reelection.

Countering that, Beauprez has vowed on the campaign trail to execute Dunlap, making the issue into an applause line.

And:

Sixty-three percent of respondents said they support the death penalty, and 28 percent are opposed while 10 percent are unsure. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

"Colorado governor: Hickenlooper and Beauprez neck and neck in poll," is also by Jon Murray.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's race against Republican Bob Beauprez was too close to call in a new Denver Post poll in which voters nonetheless indicated they were still getting familiar with the challenger.

Five weeks before the start of the mail-in election, 45 percent supported Hickenlooper among likely voters polled by SurveyUSA, and 43 percent supported Beauprez. The result is within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

The poll makes clear that the Democratic governor — who has faced controversy over gun control, the death penalty and his unconventional leadership style — is mostly a known quantity, and a polarizing figure. Forty-six percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of him, while 47 percent had an unfavorable opinion, a one-point deficit.

Earlier coverage from Colorado begins at the link.  Related posts are in the politics and public opinion polling category indexes.

Colorado Polling

"Rasmussen poll gives Bob Beauprez first lead in governor's race," is by Joey Bunch in the Denver Post.

Though incumbent Gov. John Hickenlooper and Republican challenger Bob Beauprez have been divided by only a few points at or near the margin of error for weeks, the first poll that put Beauprez ahead came out Monday.

The generally right-leaning Rasmussen Reports statewide survey put Beauprez ahead with 45 percent to the incumbent's 44 percent among likely voters. Third-party or independent candidates combine for 4 percent, leaving potentially 7 percent undecided two months from Election Day. The margin of error was gauged at 3.5 percent.

The representative sample of 800 Coloradans also were asked, "How would you rate the job John Hickenlooper has been doing as governor?" The result: 47 percent disappoved, 45 percent approved.

The article notes that a Post poll will be coming out later this week.

"Hickenlooper out of step with Colorado voters on death penalty: poll," is by Valerie Richardson for the Washington Times.

A poll released Monday shows Colorado voters favor the death penalty by more than 2 to 1, which could spell trouble for Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s re-election bid.

A Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday found that a whopping 59 percent of likely Colorado voters surveyed support capital punishment in general, while 25 percent are opposed and 16 percent aren’t sure.

The survey also found Republican candidate Bob Beauprez leading Mr. Hickenlooper by 45 to 44 percentage points, within the margin of error. A poll released Sunday by NBC News/Marist found Mr. Hickenlooper ahead by 43 to 39 percentage points among likely voters.

Earlier coverage from Colorado begins at the link.

Tulsa World Editorial

"Death penalty popular, but still must clear constitutional challenges," is the editorial published in today's Tulsa World.

A strong majority of Oklahomans are comfortable with the death penalty. That’s the clear evidence of the latest Oklahoma Poll.

A scientific telephone poll of 393 likely voters conducted by SoonerPoll.com June 4-12 found that nearly three-quarters of those surveyed favored the death penalty for those convicted of murder.

Only about 12 percent said they “strongly oppose” the death penalty. More than three times as many said they think the death penalty serves as a deterrent to crime.

And:

The Lockett execution puts Oklahoma’s ability to meet both of those tests in question. The answer will come not from polling results, but from a series of inevitable court challenges, which we predict will take time and money, and which we further predict will frustrate the strong majority of capital punishment supporters in the state.

Earlier coverage of Oklahoma's botched execution begins at the link.

Shifting American Attitudes on Capital Punishment

Here are two must-read articles.

"U.S. Edges Closer to Europe in Attitude Toward Capital Punishment, Experts Say," is by Brian Knowlton in the New York Times International edition.

Ambivalence about legally administered death, sponsored by the state with bureaucratic detachment but not always precisely carried out, has long run much deeper among Europeans than among Americans, and has led to its abolition or suspension over the past century in nearly all democracies and every European or Central Asian country but Belarus.

Their divergent attitudes toward capital punishment are among the most striking differences between Europe and the United States, where nearly two-thirds of the states still allow the death penalty.

A series of developments have now created new pressure to scale back or eliminate the death penalty in the United States, including problems carrying out executions through lethal injection, convictions that have proved improper, and court fights over whether inmates with limited intellectual capacity should be subject to capital punishment. Last Thursday, a federal judge stayed an execution set for this week in Missouri. Three other executions are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in different states.

The question now is whether the United States is at the beginning of a process that will lead it closer to Europe and most other democracies in ending the practice or is just sorting out how to deal with temporary impediments to execution.

At Slate, William Saletan writes, "Are Americans Turning Against the Death Penalty?"  There are infographphics at the link.

For 40 years American politicians have assumed that favoring the death penalty is a winning political position. Is that era coming to an end? Is support for capital punishment, like opposition to gay marriage, evaporating?

We can’t be sure. But we’re seeing the first signs that it could happen.

And:

We got used to high levels of public support for capital punishment in the 1980s and 1990s. But it wasn’t always so: The death penalty was far less favored in the 1950s and 1960s, sometimes lacking majority or even plurality support. The lows we’re seeing today don’t guarantee a further slide—this century’s numbers could bounce around as much as last century’s. But when you look at the array of surveys descending into unfamiliar territory, and when you study the factors behind this descent, it’s reasonable to think it could keep right on going.

You may want to look at recent polling in the public opinion polling category index.

New Low in Preference for the Death Penalty

That's the title of an ABC News report on a ABC News-Washington Post Poll.  It's written by Damla Ergun.

A majority of Americans favor life imprisonment without parole over the death penalty for convicted murderers, a first in ABC News/Washington Post polls.

Given a choice between the two options, 52 percent pick life in prison as the preferred punishment, while 42 percent favor the death penalty – the fewest in polls dating back 15 years. The result follows a botched execution by lethal injection in Oklahoma in late April.

Without an alternative offered, 61 percent continue to support the death penalty, matching 2007 as the fewest in polls back to the early 1980s. That’s down sharply from 80 percent in 1994.

Clearly there’s remaining ambivalence; when offered the option of life imprisonment with no chance of parole, 29 percent of death penalty supporters prefer the alternative.

You can view the complete poll, with infographics, in Adobe .pdf format.

"Support for death penalty still high, but down," is the Washington Post report by Reid Wilson and Scott Clement.

A clear majority of Americans still support the death penalty for convicted murderers in the wake of Oklahoma’s botched execution attempt in April, but the percentage who say they back capital punishment has fallen in recent years.

Sixty percent of Americans say they favor the death penalty, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows, while 37 percent are opposed. That number is down from roughly two-thirds who supported it in polls from 2002-2006, and well below the 80 percent high-water mark for capital punishment in a 1994 survey.

But for the first time in Post-ABC polling, more than half of Americans say they prefer life sentences for convicted murderers, rather than the death penalty. Fifty-two percent of those polled said they would choose life in prison, while 42 percent said they favored execution.

Those attitudes have changed thanks to shifting opinions among non-whites, who favor life sentences over the death penalty by more than a 2-to-1 margin, 65 percent to 28 percent. Eight years ago, non-whites favored life terms by 55 percent to 41 percent. White voters split 50 percent to 45 percent toward preferring the death penalty, though the margin is not statistically significant.

Politico posts, 'Death penalty poll: Most prefer life," by Jonathan Topaz.

For the first time, a majority of Americans prefer that convicted murderers spend life in prison rather than receive the death penalty, a new poll says.

According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll released Thursday, 52 percent of Americans say they would prefer that people convicted of murder spend life in prison with no chance of parole, compared to 42 percent who prefer the death penalty for those people. That marks the first time in the Post-ABC News poll that a majority of Americans have preferred a life sentence for convicted murderers.

And:

Most Americans still back the death penalty, the poll says, but that support has declined in recent years. Thursday’s poll reports that 60 percent of Americans support the death penalty, down from almost two-thirds support in surveys in 2002-06. Support for the death penalty was at 80 percent in 1994.

Thirty-seven percent of Americans oppose the death penalty, according to the survey.

Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

Public Opinion Polling in Harris County Texas

"Survey shows growing support of immigrants in Houston area," is by Lomi Kriel of the Houston Chronicle.

When Carlos Duarte moved to Houston two and a half years ago from Phoenix, he was startled to see four police officers - an Anglo, an Asian, an African-American and a Latino - walk into a restaurant to share a meal.

"It was like the perfect balance," said Duarte, a 42-year-old father of four and regional director at Mi Familia Vota, a national nonprofit group focused on Latinos. "I've been in many parts of the country, and I've never, ever seen that before."

Because of such Houston moments, Duarte was not surprised by the findings about immigration attitudes in a new study by the Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research. The survey found that a clear majority of Harris County residents hold positive attitudes about legal and illegal immigration.

And:

Other findings from the report:
Capital punishment: Houstonians have gradually dropped their support for the death penalty, with 69 percent supporting alternatives - such as life in prison without parole - for people convicted of first-degree murder.

The 33rd Kinder Institute Houston Area Survey is available in Adobe .pdf format.

Related posts are in the public opinon polling category index.

Deseret News Commentary

"Meaning of 'thou shalt not kill' not as clear as that of murder," is Drew Clark's Deseret News column.  Clark is the paper's opinion editor.

A recent Pew Research Center report found that 55 percent of American adults favor the death penalty, a drop from 62 percent in 2011. It is generally religious people who are most strongly in support of the practice.

In regard to abortion, 54 percent feel it should be legal in “all or most cases,” according to the Pew Research Center, while 40 percent feel it should be illegal in all or most cases. Since 1995, the percentage favoring abortion has never risen above 60 percent.

What do these numbers say about the state of a culture of life in the United States? They say that while there may be little disagreement about what constitutes murder, we’re likely to long remain divided over what it means not to kill.

Coverage of the recent Pew polling is at the link.

New Public Opinion Reserch From Pew

"Shrinking Majority of Americans Support Death Penalty," is the summary webpage from Pew Research Religion & Public Life Project.  There are excellent infographics available.  Here's the beginning:

According to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, 55% of U.S. adults say they favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. A significant minority (37%) oppose the practice.

While a majority of U.S. adults still support the death penalty, public opinion in favor of capital punishment has seen a modest decline since November 2011, the last time Pew Research asked the question. In 2011, fully six-in-ten U.S. adults (62%) favored the death penalty for murder convictions, and 31% opposed it.

Public support for capital punishment has ebbed and flowed over time, as indicated by polls going all the way back to the 1930s. But it has been gradually ticking downward for the past two decades, since Pew Research began collecting survey data on this issue. Since 1996, the margin between those who favor the death penalty and those who oppose it has narrowed from a 60-point gap (78% favor vs. 18% oppose) to an 18-point difference in 2013 (55% favor vs. 37% oppose).

The Washington Post highlights one of the infographics, "See where every execution has taken place since 1977, in one map," by Niraj Chokshi.

The Christian Science Monitor reports, "Why is public support for the death penalty declining?"  It's by Mark Guarino.

Why the decline in support?

The trend coincides with a drop in violent crime in most major cities ? something that also peaked in the early-to-mid-1990s, notes Drew DeSilver for the Pew Research "Fact Tank" blog. In 1991, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data, there were about 758 violent crimes reported per 100,000 people. By 2012, the rate had fallen to about 387 crimes per 100,000 - the lowest rate in more than four decades.

Researchers have also pointed to more awareness of wrongful convictions as a factor in declining support for the death penalty, Mr. DeSilver says. He cites data from the National Registry of Exonerations, a joint project by the University of Michigan and Northwestern University law schools, that indicate 1,339 people have been exonerated since 1989 - including 106 who were sentenced to death.

DNA evidence played a role in less than a third of those exonerations, with perjured testimony, false accusations, and some form of official misconduct also factors.

"Why Whites Support Capital Punishment," is by Jamelle Bouie at Slate.

We hear a lot about the racial disparity in death penalty sentencing, namely, that black Americans are dramatically overrepresented on death row.

Less remarked on is the disparity in death penalty support, as revealed in a new Pew Research Center survey. Overall, 55 percent of Americans support capital punishment, and 37 percent are opposed. Among whites, however, support for the death penalty jumps to 63 percent, compared to 40 percent for Hispanics and 36 percent for blacks.

Religion—or at least, Protestantism—seems to increase the divide. At 67 percent in favor, white evangelical Protestants are more likely than any other group to support the death penalty, followed closely by white mainline Protestants (64 percent). Catholics are the least likely among religious whites to support capital punishment, though 59 percent are still in favor. On the other end, religious blacks and Latinos are even less likely than their peers to support the death penalty.

"Death penalty supported by shrinking majority," is by Chad Merda at the Chicago Sun-Times.

The latest numbers from Pew show that 55 percent of adults are in favor of the death penalty, while 37 percent oppose it. In Nov. 2011, 62 percent of American adults supported it.

While data shows death penalty views have changed over the years, in addition to the methods used for executions, the support for capital punishment has been on the gradual decline for the past two decades.

Republicans are far more likey to support the death penalty (71 percent) compared to Democrats (45 percent).

"Fewer Americans want the death penalty, but more executions may come," is by Herb Scribner for the Deseret News.

Americans are finding themselves less and less in favor of the death penalty, according to the Pew Research Center, which published a new study that found 55 percent of the country’s adults are in favor. This is a drop from 62 percent in 2011, Pew said.

“Public support for capital punishment has ebbed and flowed over time, as indicated by polls going all the way back to the 1930s,” Pew reported. “But it has been gradually ticking downward for the past two decades, since Pew Research began collecting survey data on this issue.”

AL.com posts, "Alabama executed 6th most prisoners since 1977; survey finds declining support for death penalty," by Challen Stephens.

Alabama remains among a handful of states that account for the majority of executions. 

Alabama executed 56 prisoners since 1977. That's the sixth most nationwide.

Alabama leads all of its neighbors, save Florida. Texas by far leads the nation. Texas is followed by Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida, Missouri and then Alabama.

Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

Deseret News of Utah on the DPIC Report

"National support for death penalty at 40-year low," is by Emiley Morgan in today's Deseret News.  Here's the beginning:

Public defender Ralph Dellapiana remembers the first time he really grasped the consequences of the death penalty.

He had just been assigned to the case of Curtis Allgier, who was facing a possible death sentence for the 2007 killing of corrections officer Stephen Anderson, and was specifically responsible for the sentencing phase. As such, it would fall to him to try to convince a jury to not call for death.

"What was previous to that just an intellectual exercise became real," Dellapiana said. "I felt like I had another human being's life in my hands. If I didn't do my job, I would be part of the reason he was killed."

The realization prompted the now-director of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty to believe "the death penalty was something that should be questioned."

A recently released report from the Death Penalty Information Center indicated that not only did a Gallup poll show nationwide support for the death penalty at a 40-year low, but it also found that there were 39 executions in 2013 — only the second time in 19 years that the number has been below 40. The report also states that there were 80 death sentences handed down in 2013, which is "near the lowest number since 1973."

Earlier coverage of the DPIC 2013 Year End Report begins at the link.

The Death Penalty Information Center's The Death Penalty in 2013: Year End Report is available at the link.  You can also find a news release, infographic, and a video at the link.

The Slow Demise of Capital Punishment

That's the title of an editorial published in today's New York Times.  Here's the beginning:

More states are coming to recognize that the death penalty is arbitrary, racially biased and prone to catastrophic error. Even those that have not abolished capital punishment are no longer carrying it out in practice.

In 2013, Maryland became the sixth state to end capital punishment in the last six years. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have abolished the penalty, and it is dormant in the federal system and the military. Thirty states have had no executions in the last five years.

As it becomes less frequent, the death penalty also becomes more limited to an extremely small slice of the country, and therefore all the more arbitrary in its application. All 80 death sentences in 2013 came from only about 2 percent of counties in the entire country, and all 39 executions — more than half occurred in Texas and Florida — took place in about 1 percent of all counties, according to a new report by the Death Penalty Information Center. Eighty-five percent of all counties have not had a single execution in more than 45 years.

Public support for the death penalty — an important factor in the Supreme Court’s consideration of its constitutionality — is at its lowest level in four decades, and 40 percent of people surveyed by Gallup say they do not believe it is administered fairly. Surely that is due in part to the hundreds of exonerations based on DNA testing — including 18 death-row inmates — which continue to reveal irreparable failures throughout the system.

Earlier coverage of the DPIC report begins at the link.  Related posts are in the editorial category index.

Andrew Cohen on 'A Wild Justice'

"Why a Fair Death Penalty May Never Be Fair," is Andrew Cohen's latest post at the Atlantic.

The biggest news of 2013 about the death penalty in America did not come from a court of law or from one of the nation's death rows. It did not come from the public pronouncements of earnest conservatives who one after the other came out in favor of abolition. It came instead from a Gallup poll released in October that revealed that public support for capital punishment is at its lowest ebb since November 1972—at 60 percent.

That date is significant. Ten months earlier, in January 1972, the United States Supreme Court had invalidated the nation's capital punishment statutes (but not the death penalty itself) in Furman v. Georgia. The resulting public backlash, Evan Mandery writes in his excellent new book about the topic, helped push the Court to reverse course. By 1976, under the thin guise of "reformed" capital laws, and under political pressure after an increase in crime rates, the justices brought back the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia.

That November 1972 polling figure from Gallup—57 percent approved the death penalty that month-- was but a brief marker on an upward trail that saw support for capital punishment reach 80 percent in 1994. But it has descended ever since. There are many reasons for the drop.

And:

Although the individual protections contained in the Bill of Rights never should be dependent upon the whims and caprices of majority rule, public opinion and the death penalty have always been inseparable. Mandery's work, titled A Wild Justice: The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America, is an important reminder of that link. There is no other way to say it but this: The Supreme Court 40 years ago blinked on capital punishment—blinked because of the public outcry at the very notion of eliminating the death penalty by court order rather than by the political process.

And in blinking, in their zeal to cobble together a majority that would permit executions, the justices who gave us our modern capital jurisprudence failed to adequately articulate a legal theory that supports the death penalty in the context of the Eighth Amendment's protections against "cruel and unusual" punishment. Supporting a practice that embodies the most irreversible act our government can do in our name, this is a baffling vacuum in constitutional law. And yet it persists, 40 years after the Court was supposed to have "fixed" the nation's capital laws.

Earlier coverage of A Wild Justice begins at the link.  You can also jump to coverage of the Gallup polling.

Also available, more from Andrew Cohen.

A More Benevolent Nation?

That's the title of syndicated columnist E.J. Dionne's latest, via the Washington Post, his home paper.

Over the last three decades, we have made great strides in battling lawlessness. Because of this, we are less inclined to insist on retributive justice. We are more open to reforming prisons, criminal sentencing and policing itself. And many more of us are opposed to the death penalty.

In quieter political circumstances, a report from the Gallup organization last month might have drawn attention. The firm found that support for the death penalty had dropped to its lowest point in more than four decades. At its peak, endorsement of capital punishment stood at 80 percent in 1994. Now, only 60 percent of Americans favor it.

Not since 1972, when Gallup found 57 percent support, has backing for the death penalty been this low. The last time a plurality of Americans opposed it, according to Gallup, was 1966 when 42 percent favored capital punishment and 47 percent opposed it.

And:

As it is, falling crime rates mean that prison and sentencing reforms are among the few matters on which there is a real prospect for cooperation across partisan and ideological lines. Attorney General Eric Holder has made them central goals.

But so have a significant number of conservatives and libertarians. Ponder this sentiment: “The United States now has 5 percent of the world’s population, yet 25 percent of its prisoners. Nearly one in every 33 American adults is in some form of correctional control.”

This is a common complaint of liberals, but those words are from Richard Viguerie, the veteran conservative activist who is a leader of Right on Crime. The conservative group, Viguerie wrote last spring, is devoted to a variety of forward-looking measures, including “community-based programs rather than excessive mandatory minimum sentencing policies and prison expansion.”

Earlie coverage of last month's Gallup polling is at the link.  You can also jump directly to the Gallup Poll link.  Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

More From Conservative Abolitionists

Danny Huizinga writes, "The conservative case against the death penalty," for the Washington Times.

Historically, the “tough on crime” stance of Republicans and conservatives led to widespread support of the death penalty. But a new coalition aims to give a voice to those conservatives who feel otherwise.

Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty (CCATDP) debuted at CPAC in Maryland this year and has since gained considerable publicity. “It’s important to remember that we can be tough on crime, but we have to be smart on crime too,” says Marc Hyden, National Advocacy Coordinator for CCATDP.

Looking at Gallup’s “important issues” to voters in the 2012 election, the death penalty wasn’t even on the list. Yet the American public is slowly turning away from an expensive, morally questionable policy, and this trend is not lost on conservatives.

A new poll by Gallup reported that support for the death penalty is at its lowest point in 40 years, dropping from 80 percent in 1994 to 60 percent today.

Hyden believes there is a growing “hunger” among conservatives to reevaluate this issue. “Conservatives aren’t homogenous in their views, and we come to the conclusion that the death penalty is inconsistent with our philosophies for various reasons,” he says.

Earlier coverage of the newly vocal conservative voice for repeal begins at the link.

Texas Public Opinion Polling on Capital Punishment

The Texas Tribune posts, "UT/TT Poll: Texans Distrust Big Institutions on Privacy," by Ross Ramsey.  There are infographics, a complete poll summary and crosstabs at the link.  Today's article is the sixth and final Tribune report on the polling results, covering a spectrum of issues.

Texans continue to support the death penalty even though most believe the state wrongly convicts people from time to time.

Nearly three-quarters of Texas voters support the death penalty for people convicted of violent crimes, and 46 percent said they strongly support it. Twenty percent oppose the death penalty, half of them strongly.

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

At the same time, only 2 percent said people are “never” wrongly convicted, another 27 percent said people are “almost never” wrongly convicted, and 49 percent said that “occasionally happens.” About one in eight said wrongful death penalty convictions take place “a great deal of the time.”

Coverage of an October Gallup Poll on national capital punishment attitudes begins at the link.

Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

Diann Rust-Tierney on the Latest Gallup Poll Results

"Public's Changing Attitudes on Capital Punishment," is Diann Rust-Tierney's latest at Huffington Post.  She's the Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.  Here's the beginning:

When capital punishment was halted in the United Sates by the Supreme Court in 1972, Justice Thurgood Marshall cautioned against relying too heavily on public opinion polls that measure the attitudes of a specific punishment based on "its mere mention." Justice Marshall believed correctly that most Americans knew too little about the death penalty and its workings for such an exercise to be an accurate reflection of the public's morality and sense of justice.

In the years that followed, support for the death penalty skyrocketed, peaking in 1994 with 80 percent of the population supporting its use, according to Gallup. Now a poll confirms, what many close to this issue already believed, that support for the death penalty is on the decline -- at 60 percent -- the lowest level of support for the practice in 41 years, according to Gallup's analysis. Moreover, in polls that present more information about the death penalty to respondents, including alternatives to capital punishment, majority support for the practice vanishes.

Justice Marshall's premise that an informed citizen will come out in favor of justice is correct. In the decades that followed capital punishment's eventual reinstatement in the U.S., details about the problems that plague it have persisted. Most prominent among the concerns is the risk of executing the innocent. Over a period of years, regular news reports about wrongful capital and non-capital convictions have shaken public confidence in the criminal justice system.

Earlier coverage of the October Gallup Poll begins at the link.  You can also find more from Diann Rust-Tierney on HuffPost.

Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

What Americans Don't Understand About the Death Penalty

That's the title of Andrew Cohen's latest writing on capital punishment at the Atlantic.  It's subtitled, "Support for capital punishment has hit an all-time low, according to a new Gallup poll. But the public still has a lot to learn about how unjustly the sentence is applied."

Here's the beginning of this must-read:

The folks at Gallup released the results of a new poll yesterday about the death penalty in America under the headline: "U.S. Death Penalty Support Lowest in 40 Years." Given the arbitrary way in which capital punishment is administered today in America, that's the good news. Evidently it is dawning on more and more people that the death penalty, as now applied by our judges and juries, is broken, in ways large and small, and thus unworthy of support.

The bad news, however, is that public attitudes about the death penalty today remain wildly disconnected from the reality of the death penalty today. This represents a failure of our courts, and of journalists and advocates, to adequately explain the grim truths about capital punishment. And it represents a failure by millions of Americans to level with themselves, and with each other, about what the death penalty is and is not.

Let me focus briefly here on two of the more disheartening results from the Gallup poll. Here's one:

Fifty-two percent of Americans believe the death penalty is applied fairly in the United States -- a smaller figure than the 60% who favor the death penalty. Forty percent believe the death penalty is applied unfairly. Gallup first asked this question in 2000, when the Illinois moratorium on the death penalty made headlines. At that time, 51% said the death penalty was applied fairly, which remains the low point in the 14-year trend. In 2004, a high of 61% said the death penalty was applied fairly.

This means that more than half of those surveyed are—let me be delicate—still tragically misinformed about the nature of capital punishment in America in 2013. The truth is that race plays an enormous role in determining who is and who is not sentenced to death in America. If you are black you stand a far higher chance of getting the death penalty, especially if your victim is white. The evidence and analysis of this fact are so pervasive that it should be beyond debate: 52 percent of Americans are dead wrong in their perception of the fairness of the application of capital punishment.

The New Republic posts a great infographic in Jennifer Kirby's report, "Death Penalty Support vs. Violent Crime: Two Graphs With Very Similar Arcs."

Gallup released a poll Tuesday showing that 60 percent of Americans favor capital punishment—the lowest rate in nearly 40 years. This comes about a month after the FBI released its 2012 national crime statistics, the latest data point in a long-term reduction in violent crime since the early 1990s. As the two graphs below show, these two figures have similar trajectories. So does violent crime influence public support for the death penalty?

Correlation does not necessarily equal causation, of course. John Blume, director of the Death Penalty Project at Cornell University Law School, says declining support comes from a combination of factors, including recent high-profile exoneration cases and a growing awareness of its costs. But, he says, “historically there has been less support for capital punishment in times when rates of violent crime are lower.”

Earlier coverage of the lastest Gallup polling is at the link.  Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

The Latest Gallup Polling

"U.S. Death Penalty Support Lowest in More Than 40 Years," is the Gallup report written by Jeffrey M. Jones.  Here's the beginning and the first of several charts:

Sixty percent of Americans say they favor the death penalty for convicted murderers, the lowest level of support Gallup has measured since November 1972, when 57% were in favor. Death penalty support peaked at 80% in 1994, but it has gradually declined since then.

Gallup first asked Americans their views on the death penalty using this question in 1936, and has updated it periodically since then, including annual updates since 1999.

Americans have typically favored the death penalty; in fact, support has exceeded opposition in all but one survey, conducted in May 1966, during an era marked by philosophical and legal challenges to the death penalty from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s. Americans' support for the death penalty waned during that time. The culmination of that era was the Supreme Court's 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision, which invalidated all state death penalty statutes on technical grounds but stopped short of declaring the practice itself unconstitutional. Four years later, the court ruled that several newly written death penalty laws were constitutional, and executions resumed in the U.S. shortly thereafter.

"Poll: Death penalty approval drops," is by Jose DelReal at Politico.

The death penalty for convicted murderers is at its lowest approval rating since 1972, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

The Gallup poll shows that while the majority of American still support the death penalty, the new 60 percent approval rating is the lowest in more than four decades.

And:

Six of the 18 states that ban the death penalty have instituted those bans since 2006.

Democrats and Republicans are sharply split on the issue, with only 47 percent of Democrats supporting the death penalty while 81 percent of Republicans are in favor. The majority of independents support the death penalty with a 60 percent approval.

"The Death Penalty: Still Popular, But Getting Less Popular," by Connor Simpson at Politico.

This new Gallup polls suggests some Americans are more forgiving than they once were, as support for the death has fallen dramatically since hitting 80 percent in 1994, to 60 percent in 2013. The last time support for the death penalty was this low among all Americans was in November 1972, which is the year that the Supreme Court effectively placed a moratorium on executions which lasted until 1976.

Earlier polling from Gallup is at the link.  Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

Boston Globe Polling

Today's Boston Globe reports, "In Globe poll, most favor life term for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev," by Brian MacQuarrie.  The full poll results are available in Adobe .pdf format.

By a wide margin, Boston residents favor life without parole instead of the death penalty for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev if he is convicted of the attack, a Boston Globe poll found.

The poll, conducted Sept. 5 through Sept. 12, showed that 57 percent of respondents support a life sentence for Tsarnaev, compared with 33 percent who favor the death penalty. Although capital punishment is barred in Massachusetts, Tsarnaev has been indicted on federal charges, including using weapons of mass destruction, that could bring the death penalty.

And:

Preference for life without parole extended across political leanings, although Democrats overwhelmingly supported that option, 61 to 28 percent, while Republicans narrowly backed a life sentence, 49 to 46 percent.

Life without parole was endorsed by men and women, across all education levels, and among white, black, and Hispanic respondents.

The results “don’t surprise me, frankly,” said Andrew Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center. “Massachusetts is a state that has opposed the death penalty for a long time. There’s a long history there. People are not going to change their long-held positions.”

Earlier coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombing case begins at the link.  Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

Paula Mitchell on California & Capital Punishment

"California Voters’ Shifting Views on the Death Penalty," is Paula Mitchell's post at Justia Verdict.  She's a career federal judicial law clerk for Senior Circuit Judge Arthur L. Alarcón on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal and adjunct law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Here's the beginning of this must-read:

Public support for the death penalty among California voters has shifted dramatically. This reflects a national trend away from the death penalty.  For the last few decades, Field Poll results showed that two-thirds of Californians supported the death penalty.  In November 2012, however, when Proposition 34 asked California voters whether the state should replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as the state’s most severe punishment, nearly half of the electorate (forty-eight percent—or 5.9 million voters) voted in favor of repeal.  Only fifty-two percent (6.4 million) voted to keep the death penalty.

Remarkably, voters the largest death penalty counties in California voted overwhelmingly to replace it with life in prison without parole. In Los Angeles County, which sends more people to death row than any other county in the nation (229 of the state’s 736 death row inmates were sentenced in L.A. County), 54.5% of citizens voted to repeal the state’s death penalty—a margin of 10% more than the state average. And Alameda County, ranked ninth nationally for the number of persons sentenced to death, voted to repeal the death penalty by an even wider margin, with 62.5% in favor of repeal and 37.5% against.

Earlier coverage from California begins at the link; other coverage is also available.

You can also jump to scholarship written by Mitchell and Judge Arthur Alarcon.

The Turning Tide

Canada's National Post examines the state of capital punishment in, "Tide may be turning for U.S. capital punishment as recent votes reveal states divided on life and death issue."  It's by Joseph Brean. Canada, as is the case with every Western democracy other than the United States, does not have capital punishment.  It also contains some excellent infographics.

Public support for capital punishment remains strong, solidly 60% in both the U.S. and Canada, which abolished it in 1976, and came within two dozen House of Commons votes of reinstating it in 1987.

But there are signs this modern period of American justice might not last. In March, Maryland became the most recent of five states in six years to abolish capital punishment.

What these votes have revealed is a country formally divided, state against state, on a life and death issue.

Virginia, Ohio and national leader Texas are lined up against New York, New Mexico and Michigan, with California unsure where to stand, as it curiously registers death sentences but does not carry them out. Only nine states used it in 2012. It was 13 the year before. The national tally is 32 with, 18 without, and closing.

“I think what’s taking place is a gradual movement away from the death penalty that now has, by almost any measure, made it into an institution used by a minority of the population in a minority of the counties,” said James Liebman, professor of law at Columbia Law School in New York.

“But the counties that are using it are sticking to it, and the question really is how long the majority in the U.S. will continue to be prepared to subsidize the use of the penalty by the minority.”

About half of Americans live in a jurisdiction that does not execute. Just one county in 10 returned even a single death sentence over a given year, and only 1% did so at a rate of more than one a year, according to research by Robert Smith, assistant professor of law at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

What this reflects is the geographical pattern of the American death penalty, a lens through which its legal vulnerabilities are being targeted.

Related posts are in the abolition and capital punishment category indexes.

Florida Roundup

Today's Tampa Bay Times publishes the editorial, "Recklessly speeding to execute."

Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature are speeding up executions in an era when other states are slowing them down or repealing the death penalty. The legislation that Scott signed into law Friday puts him on track to be the most active executioner in modern Florida history, in a state that has had more exonerations off death row than any other in the country. The only backstop now is if Scott uses his executive clemency powers to try to avoid future injustices.

The new law addresses a nonexistent problem. The death penalty has had support from governors across party lines. Both Democrats and Republicans have ordered executions, but they were able to do so on a timetable that reflected the unique circumstances of each case. The new law strips away a governor's discretion, requiring him to sign a death warrant within 30 days after the inmate has exhausted his appeals and the executive clemency process is complete. The only bright spot is that some flexibility is retained by the governor since only he can order a clemency review. Scott's general counsel, Pete Antonacci, urged the addition of the clemency provision, a step that adds a safeguard from reckless speed.

No one has a clear picture of whether there are innocent people among the 405 people on Florida's death row, but the state has exonerated 24 prisoners off death row in the last decade — more than any other state. Frank Lee Smith died of cancer on Florida's death row in 2000 after spending 14 years there. A posthumous DNA test found that he had been innocent of the crime and identified the real murderer.

"Timely Justice Act misunderstood by many," is Mark Schlakman's South Florida Sun-Sentinel OpEd.  He's with the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University.

First, I'm not a proponent of Gaetz's Timely Justice Act per se.

While concerns about undue delay in the appeals process shouldn't be ignored they'd be more appropriately addressed within the context of a comprehensive review of Florida's entire death penalty process by all branches of state government to minimize the risk the state might execute innocent people (or others who shouldn't be subject to the death penalty), precisely what The Florida Bar urged state officials to launch in a resolution it adopted in February.

Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero, appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, and I sought that position from Bar leadership for nearly two years.

Capitol News Service posts, "Timely or Shameful Justice?"  It's by Mike Vasilinda.

Governor Rick Scott is executing inmates at a higher rate than any Governor of Florida since the death penalty was resumed in 1979. After taking office two and a half years ago, 8 death sentences have been carried out. New legislation to speed up the process even more is drawing both cheers and jeers.

There is also Florida political polling news from a Quinnipiac University poll.

AP coverage is, "Scott's Approval Rating Up But He Still Trails Crist," by Brendan Farrington, via the Lakeland Ledger.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s approval rating is improving, a poll released Tuesday shows, though not to the point that it’s likely to deter any potential challengers in 2014.

The Quinnipiac University poll shows 43 percent of voters approve of the job Scott is doing, compared to 44 percent who disapprove. Meanwhile, 40 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of him compared to 42 percent who have an unfavorable view.

While those numbers aren’t sizzling, they are better than the 36 percent job approval and 33 percent favorable rating that voters gave Scott just three months ago.

The numbers suggest that Scott’s “It’s Working” message, which he’s using to tout Florida’s improving economy, is starting to work.

Still, the Republican governor will have to improve those numbers if he wants to win re-election.

"Gov. Rick Scott gains ground in new statewide poll, but still trails former Gov. Charlie Crist," is by Steve Bousquet for the Miami Herald.

The percentage of voters who have a favorable view of Scott is up to 40 percent, the highest since he took office nearly two-and-a-half years ago. But he has persistent problems with women, who favor Crist by 51 to 32 percent, and Hispanics favor Crist over Scott, 40-33 percent.

Crist’s 13 percent share of Republican crossover votes is slightly higher than Scott’s 8 percent share of Democrats.

Voters still say by a margin of 50 percent to 35 percent that Scott does not deserve to be re-elected, but that too is an improvement over the previous survey in March, when 55 percent said he didn’t deserve a second term and 32 percent said he did.

"It is an indication of how far down Gov. Rick Scott’s numbers have been that he can take some solace from a poll that finds him losing by 10 points to his predecessor in the governor’s office," said Quinnipiac’s Peter Brown. "In addition to cutting the deficit between himself and Crist, Scott sees his tepid job approval and favorability numbers and still-negative re-election numbers as notably improved. That doesn’t mean that happy days are here again for the governor, but if he is going to make a comeback, these are the kinds of steps that would be required."

Flagler Live posts, "Scott Makes Up Some Ground Against Crist and Improves Favorability to Still-Low 40%."

In a match-up against Crist–who has not announced his candidacy in the race–Scott trails, 47 to 37 percent, but that’s a significant improvement from March, when he faced a 16-point deficit in the Quinnipiac poll, and a 12-point deficit in a Public Policy Poll. Scott would also lose against Sen. Bill Nelson, if Nelson were to decide to run for governor. He would beat Scott 48 to 38 percent. Some Democrats are pushing Nelson, who’s had his run-ins with Scott, to run. He was elected to his third U.S. Senate term in November. Florida Democrats gathered for an annual gala last weekend boasted that whoever they would field against Scott would win.

Scott’s numbers have been climbing slowly but rather steadily since his lowest approval rating in May 2011, when it bottomed out at 29 percent, among the worst for any governor in the nation.

Earlier coverage from Florida begins at the link.

Colorado Roundup - Polling, Holmes Case

"What poll means for death penalty," is the title of a Denver Post editorial.

Interestingly, 57 percent of Coloradans said they did not think the death penalty deters murders.

Another revealing statistic: 53 percent said they thought the death penalty was applied fairly in Colorado, despite a mountain of evidence that its use in death-penalty eligible cases is quite arbitrary.

How informed are Coloradans about the death penalty debate? Forty-four percent said they had heard or read "a little" about the debate while 26 percent said they had heard or read "nothing at all."

Only 30 percent said they had heard or read "a lot" on the subject.

Of those Coloradans who did support abolishing the death penalty, the top reason was listed as, "No one has the right to take a life/It's murder." The second most-cited reason was, "Fear of executing an innocent person/Irreversible."

Those seem like pretty good reasons for opposing the death penalty — and there are many more — although apparently they don't resonate with most Coloradans.

We hope the conversation continues and that the governor leads it, polling aside.

Also in today's Post, the news article, "James Holmes' attorneys suggest they might withdraw his insanity plea," by John Ingold.

Attorneys for Aurora movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes have suggested they might withdraw his insanity plea if his upcoming independent psychiatric evaluation doesn't go their way.

This month, Holmes formally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, prompting the judge to order him to undergo a mental-health evaluation at a state hospital in Pueblo.

Earlier coverage of the Colorado public opinion polling, James Holmes case, and the Nathan Dunlap reprieve begins at the links.

Colorado Public Opinion Polling

The Quinnipiac University Poll Release Detail is at the link.

"Poll: Coloradans back death penalty, disapprove of Dunlap reprieve," is by Chuck Plunkett at the Denver Post.

Coloradans said that the death penalty will be an important factor when they cast ballots in next year's governor's race, and also harbor strong disapproval of the state legislature, according to a wide-ranging national independent poll released Thursday.

In the poll conducted by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, 74 percent of residents say that the issue over the state's death penalty will be either "very important" or "somewhat important" in a contest where Republicans will be vying to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.

In May, Hickenlooper granted an indefinite reprieve to Nathan Dunlap, a convicted murder who killed four people at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese in 1993. Dunlap was scheduled to be executed in August.

The poll found that 67 percent of Coloradans disapprove of Hickenlooper's decision to grant the reprieve to Dunlap, compared to 27 percent who approve of it.

"The governor has made it clear that certainly on his watch it doesn't appear anyone is going to be executed in this state, and that's an important point," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute.

The AP filing is, "Poll shows strong Colorado support for death penalty," by Nicholas Riccardi.  It's via the Coloradoan.

Hickenlooper was a rare Democrat elected during the Republican wave year of 2010, and has positioned himself as a nonpartisan centrist. But he ended up in an increasingly partisan corner after Democrats retook the statehouse in November and muscled through a number of contentious measures, including a package of new gun control laws. That could be taking a toll on Hickenlooper’s ratings. The poll said 49 percent of voters disapprove of the Legislature and only 36 percent approve.

Democrats have won the past three gubernatorial elections in Colorado. The state remains evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and independents. Republicans and independents overwhelmingly support the death penalty, by 87-11 and 73-21 margins, respectively, the poll suggested. Democrats support it more narrowly, 49-41.

The poll indicated voters narrowly approve of Hickenlooper’s performance as governor, 47 percent to 43 percent. But the governor is struggling with independents. Only 44 percent approve while 47 percent disapprove.

The poll of 1,065 registered voters was taken from June 5-11 with live telephone interviews on landlines and cellphones. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

National Journal posts, "Poll: Tancredo Ties Sliding Hickenlooper in Colorado," by Scott Bland.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,065 registered voters from June 5-10. The poll's margin of error is plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. Only 24 percent of respondents identified themselves as Democrats, nine percentage points lower than the share that turned out in 2010, according to exit polls. Still, the survey reveals that the governor is suffering with independents, 47 percent of whom disapprove of Hickenlooper, compared to 44 percent who approve. However, Hickenlooper actually lost independents to Tancredo in 2010, despite beating Tancredo by nearly 15 percentage points overall; the Republican ticket led by businessman Dan Maes captured only 11 percent of the vote.

The new poll also suggests it's no stretch to draw a line between Hickenlooper's declining popularity and recent items on his agenda. Hickenlooper granted a temporary death penalty reprieve to convicted murderer Nathan Dunlap in May, saying Colorado's application of the death penalty was "imperfect and inherently inequitable."

But 69 percent of voters say the state should continue having the death penalty as a legal option, and 67 percent said they disagreed with Hickenlooper's decision to grant the reprieve. Tancredo cited Hickenlooper's decision as a main motivator for entering the race again next year.

Meanwhile, 49 percent of the poll respondents said they disapproved of the job performance of the state legislature, which is controlled by Democrats and wrote a number of liberal priorities -- including some contentious ones -- into law this year. A suite of new gun laws caused particular controversy and led to an ongoing recall effort against two Democratic state senators. Hickenlooper did not issue any vetoes in 2013, though he did help scuttle some bills (including a death penalty repeal effort) before they could get to his desk.

"Quinnipiac Finds Strong Colorado Support for Death Penalty, Close Guv Race," by John Tomasic for the Colorado Independent.

Nearly 70 percent of Centennial State respondents told Qunnipiac they would like to retain capital punishment as an option for prosecutors, even though only roughly 50 percent of the voters surveyed believe the death penalty is applied fairly in the state and even though 57 percent say they don’t believe it prevents crime.

Momentum in the U.S. has generally been moving away from capital punishment in recent years. Officials have argued against it as DNA evidence has exonerated defendants who have landed on death row and as repeat studies show death sentences are more frequently meted out in cases featuring poor and ethnic minority defendants.

Colorado Democratic Governor Hickenlooper has drawn fire in the weeks since he granted death row convicted murderer Nathan Dunlap a reprieve. Dunlap gunned down four people in Aurora in 1993. There was never any question about his innocence. Hickenlooper said the reprieve was less about Dunlap than about the fact that the death penalty is unevenly applied in Colorado.

“Our system of capital punishment is imperfect and inherently inequitable,” he said. “Such a level of punishment really does demand perfection.”

The three men currently on the state’s death row all come from Arapahoe County. They are all African American.

Earlier coverage from Colorado begins at the link.  Related posts are in the public opinon polling category index.

Maryland Commentary

"Repealing Maryland's death penalty," is Governor Martin O'Malley's OpEd in Politico.

In Maryland, we govern by results: when a public policy works, we choose to invest in it. On the other hand, when a public policy does not produce results, we invest our limited resources instead in things that are proven to work.

Capital punishment is expensive and the overwhelming evidence tells us that it does not work as a deterrent.

Therefore, rather than continuing to throw taxpayers’ money at an ineffective death penalty, our state has chosen – with bipartisan support – to replace capital punishment with a more effective and cost efficient public policy: life without parole. We are the first state below the Mason-Dixon line to do so, but I believe other states will follow suit.

Capital punishment is not a deterrent, it is not fool-proof, it is administered with great racial disparity, it costs three times as much as life without parole, and there is no way to reverse a mistake when an innocent person is wrongly convicted.

And:

Improving public safety is the most fundamental responsibility of our government. The death penalty does not make us stronger or more secure as a people. It is expensive, ineffective, and wasteful as a matter of public policy; it is unjust as historically applied; and its imperfections can and do result in the occasional killing of innocent people.

That is why, in Maryland, we have replaced the death penalty with the punishment of life without parole.

Baltimore Sun columnist, Dan Rodricks writes, "In death penalty repeal, reason over revenge at long last."

Many of us believe that capital punishment, first used in the Province of Maryland in 1638, should have been relegated to the trash heap long ago. Politicians in Annapolis had overwhelming evidence of its costly and debilitating flaws for many years, but too many refused to attach their names to repeal.

Even in a state where they outnumbered Republicans 2-1, numerous Democrats feared being labeled soft on crime if they voted to end state executions. Indeed, the longtime president of the Senate, a Democrat, offered to personally inject poison into a convicted killer.

That kind of red-meat rhetoric provided the tough-on-crime credits that moderate and middling Democrats nationally were instructed to compile as the party recovered from the Reagan era and the "Willie Horton panic" in 1988. Bill Clinton approved executions while governor of Arkansas. As president, he pushed Congress to expand the federal death penalty to add dozens of categories of felonies, including some crimes that didn't even result in death.

And yet, despite Clinton's cynical political calculus, some Democrats always pushed to get Maryland on the growing list of states that have abolished this immoral and inefficient practice.

The Washington Post WonkBlog posts excellent analyis, "How the media is killing the death penalty."  It's by Danny Hayes.

Many of the states that have abolished capital punishment – including the recent cases of Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, New York and New Jersey – are, not surprisingly, among the country’s most liberal.

But the erosion of public support for the death penalty has occurred across the nation, in large part because Americans are conflicted. Many believe capital punishment is justified, but they worry that innocent people might be executed. And as the political debate has in the last two decades focused on wrongful convictions and death row exonerations, Americans have increasingly come to evaluate the death penalty in terms of its potential unfairness.

Although a large majority of Americans – 63 percent in a December USA Today/Gallup poll – say they favor capital punishment, many nonetheless harbor misgivings.

And:

Such ambivalence is not unique to the death penalty. Work by political scientists has shown that people often possess multiple, and competing, attitudes about lots of public policy issues. After 9/11, for example, Americans expressed discomfort with law enforcement activities that seemed to infringe on civil liberties, but many also believed that such activities were justified to protect the nation from terrorism.

But precisely because ambivalence makes people more susceptible to changing their minds, the reframing of the death penalty debate has significantly reduced support for capital punishment.

In “The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence,” political scientists Frank Baumgartner, Suzanna DeBoef and Amber Boydstun found that since the mid-1990s, news coverage of the death penalty has increasingly focused on exonerations and wrongful executions. In earlier eras, the debate in the media was more frequently about other issues, such as capital punishment’s constitutionality or cost.

This shift in media coverage, which has highlighted problems in the death penalty’s application, has encouraged the public to evaluate capital punishment in terms of fairness, especially the potential for innocent people to be sent to death row. As a consequence, Baumgartner, DeBoef and Boydstun find that along with a decline in the U.S. murder rate and other high-profile events (such as former Illinois governor George Ryan’s (R) 2001 mass commutation of death row inmates), negative news drove down support for capital punishment.

The Annapolis Capital Gazette reports, "Death penalty opponents: Repeal ends risk of fatal errors," by Alex Jackson.

By making Maryland the 18th state to repeal the death penalty, state lawmakers hope to avoid a story like Cameron Todd Willingham’s.

Willingham was executed on Feb. 17, 2004, in Texas. After the 35-year-old’s three children died in a fire at his house in 1991, he was accused of arson and convicted for the deaths.

But serious doubts were raised about the scientific proof the house had been burned down deliberately. Before his execution, Willingham said he was innocent.

A year after he was put to death, Texas established a government commission to investigate allegations of error and misconduct by forensic scientists. A scientist on the commission concluded investigators had no scientific basis for claiming the fire was arson, according to The New Yorker.

More recent investigations have come up with similar findings in Willingham’s case. His family is still seeking a pardon from the state.

Maryland has had its own experience with death-penalty cases that didn’t stand up to re-examination.

As the green circles outnumbered the red ones on the House of Delegates tally board on Friday, a smile lit up Kirk Bloodsworth’s face. Bloodsworth was once labeled a monster.

Earlier coverage of the Maryland General Assembly's repeal of capital punishment begins at the link.

New North Carolina Public Opinion Polling

The Public Police Polling death penalty survey results are available in Adobe .pdf format.

"Poll: Majority in NC Supports Ending Death Penalty," is by Stephanie Carroll Carson of North Carolina Public News Service.  There is audio at the link.

North Carolina support ending the death penalty in the state, according to a poll released this week. Of the 600 people polled, 68 percent said they would rather the state replace capital punishment with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to Dustin Ingalls, assistant director of Public Policy Polling, the organization that conducted the poll, public opinion appears to be shifting.

"More and more, support for death penalty is decreasing, and that sort of falls in line with opposition on other social issues," he said.

Support for abolishing the death penalty crosses party lines, according to the poll, with even a majority of conservative respondents in favor of ending capital punishment. Another poll result: people said they would rather see the money used to put people to death spent on crime prevention instead.

Tye Hunter, executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, said that, while public opinion seems to be shifting, it may take a while for that shift to be reflected in the legislature.

The Charlotte Post reports, "Poll: N.C. residents reject death penalty."  It's written  by Herbert L. White.

North Carolinians would rather have convicted killers pay restitution to their victims’ families if they spend the rest of their lives behind bars, according to a new poll.

A survey by Public Policy Polling found 68 percent of North Carolina residents support replacing the death penalty with life in prison without parole, if offenders are required to work and pay restitution to the families of their victims. A majority of respondents who identified themselves as politically conservative said they favor ending the death penalty and redirecting dollars spent on it to helping victims.

And:

Public Policy Polling surveyed 600 North Carolinians by telephone between Feb. 7-10. Forty-four percent of respondents identified themselves as conservative while 26 percent identified as liberal. The remainder called themselves moderates. The poll revealed:

• 68 percent supported ending the death penalty so defendants could work and pay restitution.

• 63 percent supported ending the death penalty if the money now spent on capital punishment was redirected to crime fighting.

• 55 percent supported ending the death penalty if the money was redirected to solving cold cases and assisting victims

Among conservatives, support for abolishing capital punishment was strongest if offenders were required to pay restitution. Sixty-five percent of those who called themselves “somewhat conservative” and 50 percent of those who were “very conservative” supported switching to life in prison without parole.

“The days when the death penalty enjoyed near-universal support are clearly over. Across the country, poll after poll has shown that,” said Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling. “These results show that people in North Carolina are willing to consider alternatives to capital punishment.”

Earlier coverage from North Carolina begins at the link.  Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

Maryland Senate Floor Debate May Come Next Week

Today's Annapolis Capital Gazette reports, "Death penalty repeal vote may not happen until next week," by Alex Jackson.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill to repeal the death penalty could wait until next week for a vote by the full Senate.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, said Senate Bill 276 won't be discussed by the chamber until Thursday afternoon, at the earliest.

With debate continuing on O'Malley's gun-control proposal into Thursday morning, Miller said there most likely wouldn't be time for senators to propose amendments to the bill until Friday. The Senate had originally scheduled the start of debate on the death penalty repeal bill for Wednesday.

The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee last week voted 6-5 to approve the repeal bill, which would make Maryland the 18th state to outlaw capital punishment.

Twenty-four votes are needed to pass a bill in the Senate The bill has at least 25 supporters.

"Poll: Most Marylanders back O’Malley on gun laws but not on repeal of the death penalty," is by Aaron C. Davis and Peyton M. Craighill for the Washington Post.  Infographics on the polling results are also available from the Post.

Marylanders overwhelmingly support Gov. Martin O’Malley’s plan to force gun buyers to submit to some of the nation’s strictest licensing requirements, including fingerprinting and safety training, according to a new Washington Post poll.

But a majority oppose O’Malley’s bid to abolish the death penalty, despite deep skepticism across the state about whether capital punishment is an effective deterrent, the poll found.

The mixed verdict on two of the governor’s leading priorities comes at a key juncture in the 90-day legislative session for O’Malley (D), who is trying to cement his progressive legacy in Maryland as he eyes a possible run for national office in 2016.

Across the state, fully 85 percent back the governor’s licensing plan — the centerpiece of a broader gun-control bill — and 73 percent do so “strongly,” according to the poll.

On Tuesday, the state Senate opened what promises to be several days of contentious debate on the legislation, which would also ban high-capacity ammunition clips and assault weapons — provisions that also enjoy broad support in the Post poll.

And:

Although a majority of Marylanders continue to support the death penalty, some of the arguments O’Malley is making appear to resonate.

By nearly 2 to 1, those polled say that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder and does not lower the murder rate. And most who responded that way say they feel strongly about their view.

Moreover, nearly one-third of Marylanders — including nearly half of African Americans — say capital punishment has been applied unfairly in the state. That’s another argument O’Malley has advanced in a state where five men sit on death row but no executions have taken place since 2005.

Yet even when those arguments are stated explicitly — as well as questions that critics have raised about the morality of capital punishment — support for repeal is tepid among the public.

The Post also reports, "In Maryland, five wait on death row," by Theresa Vargas.

Vernon Lee Evans Jr. should have been dead by now. A prosecutor did his best to ensure that when he convinced a Maryland jury that Evans was among the worst of the worst, a killer who deserved a punishment more severe than a life spent in prison. He deserved, the prosecutor argued and the jury agreed, to die at the hands of the state.

That was nearly 30 years ago.

In the years since, the motel where Evans gunned down two employees has been replaced by a Howard Johnson. The star witness in the case, a woman who lost her husband and a sister that day, has died. And Evans, who in his own words has “rebuilt” his character, remains on Maryland’s death row, kept alive in a politically forged purgatory.

“In hindsight, it would have been better if he got life without parole,” David B. Irwin, the former prosecutor who handled the case, said recently. “But it wasn’t obvious to us as young prosecutors back then that this was the way it was going to turn out.”

As the state Senate prepares to vote this week on whether Maryland should abolish capital punishment, the Evans case illustrates what can happen when the death penalty exists but is not enforced.

Unlike Virginia, which has executed more than 100 people since 1976, including one man last month, Maryland has executed five people since it reinstituted the death penalty in 1978, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. No one has been executed in Maryland since 2005.

What is essentially a moratorium on capital punishment has been in place in Maryland since 2006, and since 2009, the state has required DNA evidence, a videotaped crime or a videotaped confession in capital cases.

Earlier coverage from Maryland begins at the link.

Lethal Injection Update From Kentucky - Updated

"Change in execution method set to go into effect," is the AP report written by Brett Barrouquere.  It's via the Lexington Herald-Leader.

At least three Death Row inmates could be nearing execution as Kentucky moves toward a new lethal injection method.

Execution requests for two of the condemned men were made to the governor's office in 2010, but a judge barred the state from carrying out any executions until it switched to something other than a three-drug lethal injection method.

The state has revamped its method and now must go before Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd to ask for the suspension to be lifted. Until then, the governor can't take any action toward carrying out a death sentence.

Requests have already been made to execute Robert Karl Foley, 56, convicted of six murders in Madison and Laurel counties, and Ralph S. Baze, 57, condemned for shooting and killing a sheriff and deputy in 1992.

Also, 51-year-old Benny Lee Hodge's appeals based on the trial record have run out in the August 1985 slaying of Tammy Acker, whose father was robbed of $1.9 million in Fleming-Neon in Eastern Kentucky.

Kentucky is implementing lethal injection by one or two drugs, depending upon their availability. The change, which takes effect Friday, brings Kentucky in line with at least seven states using the single-drug execution protocol.

Should Shepherd allow executions to go forward, the state can then begin reviewing cases and purchasing the necessary drugs. A public records request in January by The Associated Press showed that Kentucky had not yet purchased the drugs needed.

And:

The revised regulations specify that doses of the drug used in the one-drug execution — 3 grams of sodium thiopental or 5 grams of pentobarbital — be repeated if the inmate has not died within 10 minutes.

In a two-drug execution, the warden may authorize continued injections of 60 milligrams of hydromorphone until the inmate dies. Kentucky previously used sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

Shepherd's ruling halting all lethal injections came as the state prepared to execute Gregory L. Wilson, 56, for the 1987 rape, kidnapping and murder of 36-year-old Debbie Pooley in Kenton County. Wilson has since won a hearing in state court on whether he is mentally disabled and ineligible for execution.

Public defender David Barron, who represents several Death Row inmates, said he plans to challenge the new method.

Kentucky has executed three men at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, the last one in November 2008.

The Huntington Herald-Dispatch reports, "Ky. officials: State ready to resume executions."

Kentucky is ready to resume executions because a new one- or two-drug lethal injection method that took effect Friday addresses concerns by inmates that the previously used three-drug mixture amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, prosecutors said.

In a notice filed in Franklin Circuit Court, the Kentucky Attorney General’s office told Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd that the method should cancel out any arguments made by the condemned inmates.

Prosecutors want a final ruling from Shepherd that would lift his order that stopped executions in Kentucky.

The revised regulations that went into effect Friday specify that doses of the drug used in the one-drug execution — 3 grams of sodium thiopental or 5 grams of pentobarbital — be repeated if the inmate has not died within 10 minutes.

Earlier coverage of Kentucky lethal injection issues begins at the link.  Additional coverage from Kentucky is available at the links.  There is currently a de facto moratorium on executions in the state because of the lack of a lethal injection protocol.

Also, from Kentucky, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports, "Two-thirds of Kentuckians want to keep death penalty," by Jessie Halladay.

About two-thirds of Kentuckians support the death penalty as an option for murderers and do not want it replaced with a sentence of life in prison without parole, according to the latest Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll.

Two bills have been proposed in this year’s General Assembly — one in the Senate and one in the House — to abolish the death penalty.

About 67 percent of the 609 registered voters surveyed said they support capital punishment in Kentucky, while 26 percent said they’d like to see it abolished. Another 7 percent of those polled said they were not sure about the issue.

New Maryland Polling

The Gonzales Reserarch Maryland poll is available in Adobe .pdf format.

The Washington Post reports, "Md. voters open to life without possibility of parole, new poll finds."  It's by John Wagner.

The poll found that 49 percent of Marylanders support the death penalty while 44 percent oppose it. Opposition has grown by 8 percentage points in the last two years.

More striking, Gonzales said, is the finding that 61 percent of voters say life without parole is an acceptable alternative to the death penalty, while only 33 percent say it is not.

The bill O’Malley has introduced would replace capital punishment with life in prison without parole. If passed by the legislature, voters could have the final say if opponents gather sufficient signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

The poll put O’Malley’s own approval rating at 54 percent.

"Poll shows Obama, O'Malley approval remains strong," is Michael Dresser's Baltimore Sun report.

The Gonzales poll became the second this month to show strong support for an assault weapons ban, as proposed by O'Malley. The margin of approval was 58 percent to 40 percent, slightly narrower than one released by OpinionWorks the previous week.

Like the previous poll, the Gonzales survey showed that Maryland voters narrowly support the death penalty, though by a shrinking margin. This month, voters expressed approval of capital punishment by 49 percent to 44 percent. The 5-point margin compares with a 20-point margin two years ago. O'Malley is supporting a repeal of the death penalty.

While the Gonzales poll's overall result on the death penalty is close to that of OpinionWorks, it differs on how it reaches that conclusion. Gonzales' survey showed strong opposition to the death penalty among black voters and heavy approval among whites. OpinionWorks showed little difference between the races.

Unlike OpinionWorks, Gonzales asked whether Marylanders considered life without the possibility of parole an acceptable substitute for the death penalty. Voters said they did by a margin of 61 percent to 33 percent. Supporters of repeal have proposed that life without parole take the place of capital punishment.

WBAL-TV posts, "Gonzales poll finds opposition to death penalty growing."

One of the governor's top priorities of the legislative session includes abolishing the state's death penalty. The poll finds opposition to the death penalty in Maryland has grown 8 points over the past two years.

Statewide, the poll finds 49 percent of voters favor the death penalty -- 29 percent of which strongly favor it -- and 44 percent oppose the death penalty -- 31 percent of which strongly oppose it.

Of those polled, 60 percent of Democrats oppose the death penalty, and 77 percent of Republicans support it. Of Independents, 51 percent said they favor the death penalty and 38 percent said they oppose it.

The poll also found a near 2-to-1 result when asking whether life without parole is an acceptable substitute to the death penalty. Sixty-one percent said it is an acceptable alternative, while 33 percent said it is not.

"Death penalty repeal picking up steam in state," at Southern Maryland Newspapers Online, by C. Benjamin Ford.

Maryland voters support a ban on the sale of assault weapons in the state and background checks on people buying guns at gun shows, and approve of the job Gov. Martin O’Malley has done as governor, but do not want him to run for president in 2016, according to a new state poll.

Also, support for the death penalty seems to be slipping over time in Maryland, although 49 percent still favor retaining the death penalty, including 29 percent who strongly favor it. Meanwhile, 44 percent oppose the death penalty, including 31 percent who strongly oppose it, the poll shows.

Two years ago, 56 percent of Marylanders favored the death penalty, while 36 opposed it, according to the polling data.

“The biggest surprise was the eight-point pickup in the opposition to the death penalty,” said pollster Patrick E. Gonzales, of Annapolis-based Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies.

Earlier coverage from Maryland begins at the link; also available, earlier Maryland public opinion polling. 

Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

Maryland Polling

Today's Baltimore Sun reports, "Marylanders strongly support gun control proposals, poll finds; State voters divided over death penalty repeal."  It's by Michael Dresser.

A new poll shows Marylanders strongly support two gun control measures that Gov. Martin O'Malley has suggested he might ask the General Assembly to pass in the wake of last month's elementary school massacre in Connecticut.

On another measure the governor supports — repeal of the death penalty — the state's voters are divided.

The poll of 800 registered voters, taken by the Annapolis-based firm OpinionWorks and released to The Baltimore Sun, shows overwhelming majorities favor banning the sale of assault weapons in Maryland and limiting the number of bullets a gun's magazine can hold.

And:

The death penalty issue is likely to be particularly hard-fought and could be decided by a margin of one or two votes in the state Senate. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has promised a floor vote if the governor can muster enough support to pass a bill in that chamber.

The poll showed Marylanders are against repeal by a margin of 48 percent to 42 percent, but the margin has been narrowing in recent years.

Sen. Lisa A. Gladden, a Baltimore Democrat who has led the fight for repeal, said the poll numbers are more favorable to her cause than in the past.

"What it says, at least to me, is we're moving toward repeal," Gladden said. "These are the highest, closest numbers we've ever seen saying they support repeal."

Jane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, said that when pollsters ask people another question — whether they would support life without parole as an alternative to execution — they routinely say yes by margins of 60 percent or more.

Some voters tend to support capital punishment in the abstract, Henderson said.

Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.  Earlier coverage from Maryland begins at the link.

New Polling From Gallup

"U.S. Death Penalty Support Stable at 63%; Decade-long decline in support after 2001 seen mostly among Democrats," is the title of the summary report from Gallup on its latest polling.  It's written by Lydia Saad.  Here's the beginning:

Americans' support for the death penalty as punishment for murder has plateaued in the low 60s in recent years, after several years in which support was diminishing. Sixty-three percent now favor the death penalty as the punishment for murder, similar to 61% in 2011 and 64% in 2010.

Gallup first asked Americans for their views on the death penalty using this question in 1936, and has asked it at least annually since 1999. The latest results come from a Dec. 19-22, 2012, USA Today/Gallup survey, conducted in the first few days after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting massacre.

Although views on the death penalty have been fairly static since 2010, support has been gradually diminishing since the high point in 1994, when 80% were in favor. By 2001, roughly two-thirds were in favor, and since then it has edged closer to 60%.

"Poll: 6 in 10 Americans favor death penalty," is by JoAnne Viviano for the Columbus Dispatch.

A poll released this week shows 63 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for murder convictions.

The results of the 2012 USA Today/Gallup poll of about 1,000 adults are similar to findings from 2011, when 61 percent of respondents favored capital punishment, and 2010, when 64 percent were in favor of the practice. 

The most current poll was conducted by phone from Dec. 19-22, within days of the Newtown, Conn., shooting spree that claimed the lives of 28 people, including 20 elementary school children. It has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Gallup has polled Americans on the death penalty since 1936, when 59 percent agreed with the practice. Support peaked at 80 percent in 1994 and hit a low of 42 percent in the 1960s.

Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

Tulsa World's Lethal Rejection

That's the original title of Julie Delcour's editorial column in the Tulsa World, "Death penalty not living up to expectations."

Here's where capital punishment stands in America: 33 states and the federal government authorize it. Gallup and Pew Research Center polls show public support at above 60 percent. So reports that the death penalty is on its death bed are exaggerated, or are they?

Since 2005, five states have abolished the death penalty and California came close to doing so in November, Proposition 34 losing by four percentage points. Nearly 35 years ago, a law reinstating the death penalty there passed by 82 percent. In the years since, the death penalty has cost the state about $4 billion and California has not carried out a single execution in seven years and only 13 since the law went into effect.

Last fall, for the first time in its 155-year history, the Sacramento Bee opposed the death penalty editorially, calling it "an illusion," and saying:

"We need to end the fiction - the sooner the better. The state's death penalty is an outdated, flawed and expensive system of punishment that needs to be replaced with a rock-solid sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole."

More evidence that a gradual retreat from the death penalty is under way can be found in the number of new inmates added to state death rows. In 2000, 224 defendants received a death sentence compared with 77 in 2012, the second lowest since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1976.

And:

But not in Oklahoma, which, with 102 executions since 1976, has the highest number of executions per capita in the nation, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. Texas leads the nation in executions with 493, trailed by Virginia, 109, and then Oklahoma.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link; also available, earlier coverage of the DPIC report.

New Field Poll Leads California Roundup

I am catching up with several days worth of California items.  Let's begin with breaking news released this morning.  In the next post, I'll link to editorials, OpEds, and other recent commentary.

California's Capitol Weekly posts, "For first time, backers outnumber foes in repealing death penalty," written by Mark DiCamillo and Mervin Field.

The latest Field Poll finds that for the first time supporters outnumber opponents of Proposition 34, the statewide ballot initiative to repeal the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole. Currently 45% of this state’s likely voters are voting Yes while 38% are voting No. But, a relatively large 17% remain undecided.

One of the factors propelling the increase in support of the initiative relates to the growing perception that the death penalty is more expensive to administer than housing a person in prison
for life. When asked about this in the current survey, 53% of likely voters now say the death penalty is more expensive than life in prison, while 31% think it is more expensive to house a convicted felon for life. This represents a significant change in voter opinion compared to past Field Poll measures. A September 2011 Field Poll found slightly more believing life in prison was more expensive than the death penalty (43% to 41%), while in 1989 greater than a two to one majority felt this way (54% to 26%).

The complete Field Poll survey is available in Adobe .pdf format.

The AP report is, "Poll: Support up for ending Calif. death penalty," by Don Thompson.  It's via the CT Post.

Support is growing to end California's death penalty, but backers of an initiative on Tuesday's ballot still lack the majority needed to pass it, according to a Field Poll released Friday.

The survey found that 45 percent of likely voters support Proposition 34, which would end executions in favor of life imprisonment without parole, even for murderers already on death row. Thirty-eight percent oppose the measure, while nearly 1 in 5 voters remains undecided.

Support increased by 4 percentage points since a previous tracking poll was conducted in mid-October.

"They have a chance. It looks better than a few weeks ago because it's trending in their direction," said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo.

But he said supporters of the initiative need undecided voters to lean their way if the measure is to prevail. Historically, most late-deciders have tended to vote "no."

"Field Poll shows measure to end death penalty gaining, but still lacking 50%," is the Sacramento Bee report by Sam Stanton.  There is a graphic at the link.

With concern over the cost of capital punishment rising, California voters may be poised for a historic vote to abolish the state's death penalty, a new Field Poll indicates.

Support for the measure, Proposition 34, remains below 50 percent. But the poll released this morning found 45 percent of likely voters favor replacing the punishment with life in prison, while 38 percent oppose doing away with capital punishment.

Another 17 percent say they remain undecided.

"Calif. death penalty opponents say it's too costly," is an AP roundup of the California debate written by Paul Elias.

Death penalty opponents in California are trying a new argument this year: Abolish capital punishment because the perpetually cash-strapped state just can't afford it.

Voters in the state with the nation's largest death row will decide Tuesday whether to repeal the death penalty. Proponents of Proposition 34 say incarceration and litigation costs are too high for too little return.

California has spent about $4 billion since capital punishment resumed in 1977, yet just 13 inmates have been put to death.

An independent analysis says the state would save between $100 million and $130 million a year by converting death sentences to life-without-parole, money supporters say could be put toward public schools and local law enforcement investigations.

"The death penalty is a giant rathole where so much of California's budget is thrown with no discernible benefit," said Dionne Wilson, whose husband, a police officer, was killed by a man now on death row.

A supporter of Proposition 34, she said the death sentence given to her husband's killer "didn't change anything. I still don't have a husband and my children and family are devastated."

Opponents say the argument is merely a smoke screen by the American Civil Liberties Union and other longtime opponents of capital punishment.

The Los Angeles Times is providing intense coverage by it reporter Maura Dolan, including, "Serial killer's lone survivor torn by conscience," about Rose Steward who support Prop. 34.  Doaln also writes, "Many death row inmates oppose bid to halt executions,"

A federal appeals court Monday overturned the death sentence of California’s longest serving death row inmate on the grounds that his defense lawyer failed to investigate and present mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of his murder trial.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decided 2-1 that Douglas R. Stankewitz, convicted of murdering Theresa Greybeal in Fresno in 1978, should be re-sentenced to life without possibility of parole unless prosecutors retry the penalty phase of his murder case.

Death penalty trials are divided into two parts. The jury first decides whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty. If guilt is established, the jury then decides whether to recommend a death sentence or life without parole.

The 9th Circuit majority said Stankewitz’s lawyer presented only a “paltry” amount of evidence in trying to persuade jurors against a death sentence, ignoring extensive documentation of the defendant’s “deprived and abusive upbringing,” potential mental illness, long history of substance abuse and use of drugs leading up to the murder.

The Guardian reports, "California campaigners hope to see death penalty abolished on election day."  It's written by Ed Pilkington.

Finally in this news roundup, let me point to one article on one case that has nothing and everything to do with Prop. 34.  It is, "Death sentence of state's longest-serving death row inmate overturned," from the October 30 edition of the Los Angeles Times, also by Maura Dolan.

 

In the next post, editorials, OpEds, and additional commentary on Prop. 34.

Earlier coverage of Prop. 34, the SAFE California ballot initiative, begins at the link; also available, more on Prop. 34 at SAFE Caliornia.

Support for Prop. 34 'Surging' in Latest Polling - California Roundup

Today's Los Angeles Times reports, "Support for end to California death penalty surges."  It's written by Maura Dolan and Jack Leonard.  There are graphs at the link.

Voter support for a ballot measure to repeal California's death penalty has jumped dramatically, though not enough to ensure its passage, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll has found.

Support for a separate measure that would ease the state's three-strikes sentencing law remained high, with more than 60% in favor of amending it.

The survey, conducted last week, showed that the gap between supporters and opponents of Proposition 34, the capital punishment measure, is now very small — only 3 percentage points — compared with last month. Still, less than half of respondents said they would vote for the measure, which would replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Forty-two percent said they would vote for Proposition 34, with 45% saying no. In September, the gap was 38% to 51%, a 13-point difference. A significant 12% of respondents said they did not know how they would vote, nearly identical to the 11% who had not decided last month.

"There is no question there has been a sharp shift," said Dan Schnur, who heads the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. The results suggest that passage is "not impossible" but still "very difficult," Schnur said.

When voters heard more information about Proposition 34, such as its financial ramifications and details of the effect on prisoners, responses flipped: 45% were in favor and 42% against — still very close to the survey's margin of error, which is 2.9 percentage points.

The latest USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times poll questioned 1,504 registered voters by telephone from Oct. 15 to Oct. 21, before the Proposition 34 campaign launched radio and television ads. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic firm, did the survey with American Viewpoint, a Republican company.

The Long Beach Gazette joins a clear majority of California newspapers supporting repeal with the editorial, "Yes On Prop. 34 Vote Common Sense Here.

California’s death penalty doesn’t work and should be repealed.

That’s the premise of Proposition 34 on the Nov. 6 ballot, and we agree.

"Former executioners say it's time to kill the death penalty," is by Jose Gaspar of KBAK/KBFX-TV.

Jerry Givens is no stranger to the death penalty. As former chief executioner for the state of Virginia, Givens executed 62 convicted criminals.

"I carried out 37 executions by lethal injection and 25 by electrocution," said Givens on Wednesday night.

Givens, along with fellow former executioner and warden Ron McAndrew, of Florida, were in Bakersfield as guest speakers advocating for the passage of Proposition 34 on California's November ballot.

Like Givens, McAndrew also carried out executions, but has since come to oppose the death penalty.

"I supported it through ignorance," said McAndrew.

The New Republic reports, "California Voters Get a New Reason to Abolish the Death Penalty," by Maurice Possley, the former award-winning Chicago Tribune journalist, now with the National Registry of Exonerations.

When California voters check off their ballots next month, they’ll have the opportunity to make their state the eighteenth in the nation to abolish the death penalty. So far, proponents of the abolition ballot measure, Proposition 34, have stressed the $130 million the state could save each year by changing the maximum sentence to life without parole as well as the $100 million that would be set aside for law enforcement to work on unsolved crimes.

However, there’s a more direct reason for abolition: More defendants have been wrongfully convicted and exonerated in California than any other state in the nation -- indicating significant risk of putting an innocent person to death.

Until recently, we didn’t know that this was the case. At the National Registry of Exonerations, where I work as an investigator and writer, Illinois originally held the dubious distinction of having the most exonerations, with 111 since 1989. In September, however, California overtook it. The California count now stands at 120 exonerations since 1989.

Meanwhile, today the University of California at Berkeley School of Law and Hollway Advisory Services, a criminal justice research firm, announced the launch of the California Wrongful Convictions Project, an effort dedicated to identifying wrongful convictions in California and assessing their economic impact.

“Wrongfully convicted Californians have spent more than 1,300 years in prison, costing taxpayers more than $129 million for unnecessary incarceration and compensation,” the Project announced in a press release.

NPR Morning Edition has featured two reports on Prop. 34, "Calif. Death Penalty Opposition Focuses On Economy," by Richard Gonzales; and, "In Calif., A Death Penalty Proponent Changes Course."  Both links feature audio.

"Prop 34: Ex-San Quentin Prison Warden Jeanne Woodford Backs California Measure to End Death Penalty," is the Democracy Now report, featuring video.  A transcript of the interview is also available.

Ron Briggs, an El Dorado County Supervisor, posts, "Why Conservatives Like Bill O’Reilly and Me Support Proposition 34," at the Fox and Hounds blog.

Bill O’Reilly is the newest endorser of Proposition 34, the initiative that will replace the death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole and make inmates work and pay restitution (rather than sit in private cells without doing anything, as they now do).

It might be surprising to some that O’Reilly, a political commentator on Fox News, a national leader among traditional thinkers, supports Prop 34. But a look at California’s death penalty shows why: California’s death penalty is simply a fiscal disaster that coddles criminals, enriches lawyers, and hurts victims.

Much like O’Reilly, I used to support and even champion the death penalty. In 1978, my father, Senator John Briggs, proposed an initiative to expand California’s death penalty and I proudly worked on the campaign. The voters passed the Briggs Death Penalty Initiative by an overwhelming margin. We were sure we were helping victims and we didn’t pause when the Legislative Analyst Office said the fiscal impacts of the initiative were “unknown.” It seemed obvious: the death penalty would cost less than life in prison without parole.

We were wrong.

Today's Guardian's publishes, "California's death penalty ballot: Prop 34 makes economic and ethical sense," by Ken Macdonald and Gil Garcetti.

This year, California's death row will cost taxpayers $184m. What will the state get for that price? The same number of executions as last year, and the year before that, and every year since 2006: zero.

A solution has been offered: the state's worst offenders would die in prison of natural causes, just as they are doing on death row today – only now, taxpayers would save $130m a year. That is Proposition 34, the ballot initiative to replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole as the state's maximum sentence for murder.

The economic benefit may not be obvious. After all, many people don't know that the death penalty is far more expensive than life in prison with no chance of parole. Voters are surprised to learn that every death row inmate comes with a lifelong team of lawyers, is housed to one cell and automatically gets extra security, and even extra visiting hours. Most often, death row inmates die of old age. It all adds up to a very large tab for no useful purpose.

The one thing about the death penalty everyone agrees on: the system is broken beyond repair. There is simply no other way to describe spending nearly $1bn over six years in order not to execute a single one of the 726 prisoners currently on death row.

Earlier coverage of Prop. 34, the SAFE California ballot initiative, begins at the link;

Montana Public Opinion Polling

The Sunday Biliings Gazette reported, "Gazette state poll: Voters say keep death penalty, relax environmental regulations," by Mike Dennison.  There are charts at the link.

A solid majority of Montanans oppose repealing the state’s death penalty, and a majority favors relaxing environmental law to encourage more coal, oil and gas development in the state, a Gazette state oll shows.

And:

By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, Montanans surveyed opposed repealing the state’s death penalty for certain crimes, as 57 percent opposed repealing the penalty and 30 percent supported repeal. Thirteen percent were undecided.

The Montana Legislature, in recent sessions, has rejected bills that would repeal the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole. Montana has only two convicted murderers on death row.

Earlier coverage from Montana begins at the link.  Related posts are in the public opinion polling index.

New Field Polling in California

Today's Sacramento Bee reports, "Field Poll shows voters closely divided on death penalty."  It's by Sam Stanton.

California voters are now divided over whether to repeal capital punishment through a measure on the Nov. 6 ballot, a new poll has found.

Among likely voters, 42 percent would repeal the death penalty and replace it with life without possibility of parole, while 45 percent would retain death as a punishment, the survey by the Field Poll and the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley found.

The survey found 13 percent of likely voters still undecided, giving interest groups on both sides of the measure incentive to press their cases through Election Day.

The survey, which measures support for Proposition 34, follows a Field Poll last year that also found softening support for the death penalty. In that poll, 48 percent said they preferred that someone convicted of first-degree murder be given life without parole, while 40 percent supported the death penalty.

"Death penalty repeal close in poll," by Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle.

California voters are closely divided on a November ballot measure to repeal the state's death penalty law, with significant differences in support among regions and age groups, a new Field Poll reports.

The survey found that Proposition 34, which would make life in prison without parole the maximum punishment for murder, was opposed by 45 percent of likely voters and favored by 42 percent, with 13 percent undecided. The results amounted to a statistical tie, since the poll's margin of error was 4.3 percentage points.

The poll, released Tuesday, was conducted Sept. 6-18 among a random sample of 468 voters.

"FIELD POLL: Narrow percentage favors blocking death penalty abolition< by Richard K. DeAtley for the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Voters are narrowly divided over Prop. 34, an initiative to do away with the death penalty in California, according to a UC Berkeley/Field Poll survey made public Tuesday, Sept. 25. Those favoring the ballot measure are at 42 percent, those opposed at 45 percent, with 13 percent undecided, the poll reported.

The difference is within the poll’s 4.3 percentage point margin of error.

The initiative calls for the abolition of the death penalty in California and is retroactive for the state’s condemned inmates, whose numbers now stand at 727, the largest such number in the country. If passed, the initiative will replace capital punishment with a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole, and directs $100 million to law enforcement for investigation of murder and rape cases.

The results, Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said in a phone interview, reflect changing attitudes about capital punishment in California. The Field Poll has conducted surveys on the death penalty for more than 50 years.

Changes include an increasing number of voters accepting that a sentence of life in prison without parole means just that, life in prison, rather than eventual release. Voters also are migrating from viewing life in prison without parole as more expensive than the death penalty to an increasing regard that capital punishment is more costly, DiCamillo said.

In 2000, surveyed voters in the Field Poll favored the death penalty over life in prison without parole, 44 percent to 37 percent. In a 2011 poll, 48 percent said they preferred life in prison without parole against 40 percent for the death penalty, even though 68 percent overall said they favored the death penalty.

“I don’t see those as inconsistent answers,” DiCamillo said. “For first-degree murders, most prefer life in prison without parole. But for heinous crimes — put Charlie Manson’s face up there — many voters would say the death penalty should be kept.” Voters have indicated they want prosecutors to have capital punishment as an option, he said.

Also, today, the Los Angeles Times publishes the editorial, "Prop. 34 and death penalty dishonesty: Foes of the measure make it sound as though it would set killers free."

We stopped being shocked by flagrantly dishonest campaign claims long ago, but sometimes the disingenuousness is so flagrant that it still gets our blood boiling — especially when it happens in lower-profile political races in which campaign managers are figuring that fact-checkers won't bother to call them out. Such is the case with the No on Proposition 34 campaign.

Proposition 34, which this page endorsed in May, would eliminate the death penalty in California and replace it with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Yet the "no" side seems determined to make it sound as if the measure is about setting killers free.

"Prop. 34 lets serial killers, cop killers, child killers, and those who kill the elderly, escape justice," the campaign says on its website. "Proponents don't acknowledge that when California's death penalty was eliminated before, condemned criminals were released only to rape and kill again! Voters had to restore capital punishment to restore justice."

First, Proposition 34 doesn't let anyone escape justice: Instead of being executed, death row inmates would spend the rest of their lives in prison. Second, the implication that the measure would free people to kill again is offensive and untrue.

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional. At that time, there was no such sentence as life without parole; death row inmates were instead given life sentences, meaning they were eligible for parole hearings. Some death row inmates in California were indeed set free as a result, and one, Robert Lee Massie, committed murder after being paroled in 1978. Yet that has nothing to do with Proposition 34, which bars death row inmates from parole, meaning no repeat of the Massie incident would be possible.

The Orange County Register publishes, "Editorial: No on Prop. 34."  Here's the beginning:

There's no question that the death penalty is a difficult issue. It involves the taking of a human life. In California, it also is applied only against someone convicted of first-degree murder combined with "special circumstances," such as multiple murder, murder during torture, rape, robbery or the killing of a witness. A killer in a bar fight typically is not executed.

On the Nov. 6 ballot, Proposition 34 aptly is described as the End the Death Penalty Initiative. If voters agree, California no longer would have a death penalty. The highest penalty would become "life in prison without the possibility of parole." The 700-plus inmates on death row would have their sentences reduced to prison without parole.

Earlier coverage of Prop. 34, the SAFE California ballot initiative, begins at the link; also available, more on Prop. 34 at SAFE Caliornia.

New California Polling

KQED-TV reports, "Poll: Californians Disenchanted With Death Penalty, 3 Strikes," by by Peter Jon Shuler.

A new poll out shows Californians disenchanted with the state's criminal justice system.  The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed likely voters on a wide range of topics on the November Ballot.  

The survey did not ask specific questions about Proposition 34, which would repeal the death penalty, or Proposition 36, which would revise the three-strikes law.  But questions about the concepts behind them turned up what appear to be shifting attitudes.

Across parties, demographics and regions, 73 percent said they favor changes to three strikes. PPIC president Mark Baldassare says Californians have become very conscious about the costs of prisons.
 
"Voters have identified for several years now that the state budget situation is a big problem, and they'd rather see money go to education than to corrections," Baldassare said.

Half of likely voters polled said the penalty for first degree-murder should be life imprisonment, while 42 percent said the penalty should be death.

"More Californians prefer life term to death penalty," is the Central Valley Business Times report.

Half of Californians who say they are likely voters in next month’s elections (50 percent) say life imprisonment with absolutely no possibility of parole should be the penalty for first-degree murder, while 42 percent say it should be death.

The figures are from the newest statewide polling by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, released Wednesday night.

Results were similar in September 2011 (50 percent life imprisonment, 45 percent death penalty).

Among likely voters, most Democrats (66 percent) prefer life imprisonment and most Republicans (58 percent) prefer the death penalty, while independents are split (42 percent life imprisonment, 43 percent death penalty).

The survey results may foreshadow the outcome of Proposition 34 on the ballot, which would eliminate the death penalty in the state.

Proposition 36, also on the ballot next month, would revise the three strikes law. Again, like the death penalty, the survey did not ask specifically about the propositions but did ask about some of the concepts behind them.

And:

The PPIC Statewide Survey was conducted with funding from The James Irvine Foundation. Findings are based on a telephone survey of 2,003 California adult residents interviewed on landlines and cell phones from Sept. 9-16.

Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish according to respondents' preferences.

The sampling error, taking design effects from weighting into consideration, is ±3.5 percent for all adults, ±3.9 percent for the 1,339 registered voters, and ±4.4 percent for the 995 likely voters.

Earlier coverage from California begins at the link.  Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.  More on Prop. 34 at SAFE Caliornia.

New Texas Death Penalty Public Opinion Polling

The Texas Tribune posts, "UT/TT Poll: Texans Stand Behind Death Penalty."  It's by Ross Ramsey.  Graphs and full crosstabs are available at the link.

Texans remain strongly in favor of the death penalty and nominally in favor of abortion rights and medically assisted suicide, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll.

Voters' overwhelming support for the death penalty remains intact, with 73 percent either somewhat or strongly in support and only 21 percent opposed.

"We have had dramatic support for the death penalty for a long time," said poll co-director Jim Henson, who teaches government at the University of Texas at Austin and runs the Texas Politics Project. "And given an alternative, there's not a wholesale rush for the exits."

Voters remain in support of the death penalty — though less so — when offered the alternative of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Under those circumstances, 53 percent stick with the death penalty and 37 percent prefer life in prison.

Related posts are in the public opinion polling category index.

E.J. Dionne on the Connecticut Repeal

"Little Connecticut’s big message on the death penalty," is the title of E.J. Dionne's syndicated column, via the Washington Post.  He's a member of the Washington Post Writers Group.  Here's an extended excerpt from this must-read column:

Since the 2010 elections, newly empowered conservative and Republican state legislatures have gained national attention with their wars on public employee unions, additional restrictions on abortion and new barriers to voting.

Against this backdrop, the little state of Connecticut has loomed as a large progressive exception. Last year, it became the first state to require employers to grant paid sick leave. It also enacted a law granting in-state tuition to students whose parents brought them to the United States illegally as young children.

And last week, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy signed a law repealing the state’s death penalty. There are now 17 states without capital punishment, Illinois having joined the ranks last year. What happened in Connecticut brings home the flaw in seeing everything that has happened in the states since the midterm vote as embodying a steady shift rightward.

Where they hold power, progressives have also been using their states as laboratories, and Malloy is part of an impressive group of mostly smaller-state Democratic governors who have combined a moderate, business-friendly style with progressive policymaking. Their ranks include, among others, Govs. Jack Markell in Delaware, Martin O’Malley in Maryland, John Hickenlooper in Colorado, Deval Patrick in Massachusetts and outgoing Gov. John Lynch in New Hampshire.

After the 2012 election, a key front in the battle for America’s political future will involve how the various left and right experiments in the states are judged. Aggressive conservatives such as Govs. Scott Walker in Wisconsin and John Kasich in Ohio are in the headlines now, and the recall Walker faces will keep him there for a while. But there will be a quieter and more comprehensive reckoning down the road.

Part of this reckoning will be a remarkable pivot in the politics of the death penalty, the premier issue on which an overwhelming consensus favoring what’s taken to be the conservative side has begun to crumble.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, capital punishment was a staple of Republican campaigns against a handful of liberals who bravely stuck with their opposition to the ultimate punishment. George H.W. Bush used the issue effectively against Democrat Mike Dukakis in the 1988 presidential campaign. Republicans also used it in their 1994 electoral sweep, notably in defeating three-term Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo in New York. And no wonder: In 1994, support for the death penalty hit its peak of 80 percent nationwide.

But a Gallup survey last fall showed how much things have changed: Support for capital punishment was down to 61 percent. Among the many reasons for the drop are a decline in crime rates, which has increased public confidence in the criminal justice system, and a stream of reports casting doubt on the guilt of some who were executed. In addition, significant groups of libertarian Republicans and opponents of abortion have crossed to the repeal side. An important test of the new politics of capital punishment will come this November in a California death penalty referendum.

For all this, it still takes political courage to end capital punishment. A Quinnipiac University poll released last week as Malloy signed the death penalty repeal found 62 percent of Connecticut voters still favoring executions of those convicted of murder, with only 30 percent opposed. Just 29 percent of those queried approved of the legislature’s handling of the issue, while 51 percent disapproved.

But (and it’s a very important but) support for the death penalty, in Connecticut and elsewhere, is not as robust as it looks. When Quinnipiac posed a different question — “Which punishment do you prefer for people convicted of murder, the death penalty, or life in prison with no chance of parole?” — only 46 percent favored the death penalty. An equal number chose life without parole. Death penalty opponents have an opening they haven’t had for some time.

Earlier coverage of the Connecticut repeal begins with the New York Times editorial noted in the preceding post.

California Roundup

Today's San Francisco Chronicle reports, "Death penalty foes launch initiative drive.  It's by Kevin Fagan.

Capital punishment opponents launched a drive Tuesday to place an initiative on the November 2012 ballot to replace the death penalty in California with a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

Organizers must collect 504,000 valid voter signatures by the March 18 deadline to qualify the initiative for the election. They've dubbed their measure the Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement for California Act.

"Californians are ready for the SAFE California Act because now they realize we have wasted literally billions of dollars on a failed death penalty system," said Natasha Minsker, statewide campaign manager for the effort. "It's time to take our resources and put them instead toward public safety."

Minsker, an attorney in the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California who has long specialized in opposing executions, said the campaign has 800 volunteers and expects to have 2,000 by March. She estimated the campaign to qualify for the ballot will cost as much as $1.5 million, "and we have some great donors."

"Former inmate heads movement to abolish death penalty," is the KGO-TV report.

A San Francisco man who was freed by a judge after spending 21 years in jail is spearheading a campaign to abolish the death penalty in California.

Maurice Caldwell spoke in favor of the Safe California Act, a ballot proposal that would end capital punishment in the state and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Caldwell says he's proof the criminal justice system makes mistakes.

Proponents began gathering signatures Tuesday and plan to put the initiative on the November 2012 ballot.

"Efforts Underway for Ballot Measure to End Death Penalty," at KPBS by Jenny O'Mara of the California Capitol Network.

Signature-gathering efforts are getting underway in California for a ballot measure that would end the death penalty. Supporters of the “Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement for California Act” want to place the measure on the November, 2012 ballot. Campaign Manager Natasha Minsker said the initiative would replace death sentences with life in prison without parole.

“Murder victim family members are part of this campaign and that includes murder victim family members, where the perpetrator, the killer of their loved one is on death row in California and what they say first hand is that California’s death penalty is a cruel and empty promise to victims’ families,” said Minsker.

There is also commentary on the California campaign.  Today's Long Beach Press-Telegram carries the editorial, "The high cost of death penalty."

The long-standing debate about California's death penalty may soon become more than an abstract philosophical argument. At least 12 inmates on death row in San Quentin have exhausted their legal appeals and could face imminent execution once the courts resolve a challenge on the use of lethal injections.

Prison officials have notified a federal judge that they will have a new execution team in place shortly, which could mean the case will get a hearing early next year.

Death penalty opponents also are working to get an initiative on the November 2012 ballot that seeks to end executions. How a resumption of executions on a regular basis would affect California voters' views remains to be seen.

However, it is unlikely that executing a prisoner a month, as Ohio is doing now, would significantly affect the feasibility of the death penalty.

It still would be a policy that fails to accomplish its purpose of lowering murder rates and would continue to cost far more than an effective alternative.

Since the state's death penalty was reinstated in 1978, taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment. California has more than 700 inmates on death row, more than any other state. However, only 13 executions have been carried out, the last one in 2006. That amounts to $308 million per execution.

"State's death penalty ‘failed system'," is Susan Meeker's column for Tri-County Newspapers.

A ballot initiative could make its way to the voters in 2012 aims to replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole.

Backers of an initiative were given approval to begin gathering signatures by Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Friday.

Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for Taxpayers for Justice, the organization behind the initiative, said a number of recent polls mean only one thing: California could be on the verge of dumping the death penalty.

"Californians are ready for change," Mellon said Tuesday. "People have wisened up to the fact that the death penalty is too expensive. It is a failed system."

The initiative is partly based on a study released in June by U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Arthur L. Alarcon that found California's death penalty system is costing the state about $184 million per year.

A field poll, released Sept. 29, shows 48 percent of California voters have a strong preference for life without the possibility of parole over the death penalty — a substantial increase from 20 years ago.

Cost is the key reason for the shift, Mellon said.

Catholic San Francisco carries the column, "‘The better angels of our nature’," by John Garvey.

Steven Pinker, a psychology professor at Harvard, recently published a book entitled “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” which argues that the age that we live in is less violent than any other period in history.

Archeological studies of pre-state societies suggest that as many as 15 percent of the population met violent deaths. Murder rates in Europe today are 10 to 50 times lower than they were in the Middle Ages.

Pinker attributes this “civilizing process” to a number of causes – the increasing power of the state, the growth of commerce, improvements in the status of women and even progress in our moral reasoning.

Whether we actually do get better at moral reasoning is a very complicated question. It may be that we reach different conclusions when we apply the same principles in different social situations.

Take the issue of capital punishment.

Today's Los Angeles Times carries the OpEd, "The death penalty: valid yet targeted," by David B. Rivkin Jr. and Andrew Grossman, lawyers in Washington, D.C.

Unable to convince the public on the merits of abolition, death-penalty opponents have a new strategy, attacking capital punishment on fiscal grounds. That is the basis for a ballot initiative to stop executions in California that backers of a capital punishment ban hope to qualify for the November 2012 ballot. They do have half a point: Litigation has driven up the cost of executions, and delays and expense mean that states don't always seek death for the worst of the worst.

But this argument is beyond hypocritical, coming from the same groups that have thrown up every possible roadblock to timely and efficient administration of capital punishment.

If these groups took their fiscal rhetoric seriously, they would do better to acknowledge the Constitution's text and history and drop their endless campaigns to litigate the death penalty out of existence, which cost taxpayers millions to defend. The public should not be denied the choice that the Constitution allows: an affordable and effective ultimate punishment.

NBC LA posts, "Anti-Death Penalty Budgeting Bungle," by Joe Mathews.

Specifically, the initiative takes money out of the general fund -- which is to say, out of the famously distressed and unbalanced state budget -- and puts it into a special fund called the "SAFE California Fund."

Over four years, from 2012 to 2016, a total of $100 million would be taken from the budget for this fund. These funds, according to the text of the initiative,

"shall be used exclusively for the purposes of this Act and shall not be subject to appropriation or transfer by the Legislature for any other purpose."

What are the purposes? To speed the solving of cases of rape and murder.

Who could argue with such a good cause? No one -- which is why it's smart politics to have this sort of thing in the act.

But it's terrible policy.

The act gives the attorney general -- not the legislature or governor -- control over the money, essentially giving a state official the ability to influence how local police departments allocate resources.

Earlier coverage of the California SAFE initiative begins at the link.

The Latest Public Opinion Polling From Gallup & CNN|ORC

"In U.S., Support for Death Penalty Falls to 39-Year Low," is the title of the report by Frank Newport of the Gallup Organization.  Charts and graphs are at the link.

Sixty-one percent of Americans approve of using the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, down from 64% last year. This is the lowest level of support since 1972, the year the Supreme Court voided all existing state death penalty laws in Furman v. Georgia.

And:

Support for the death penalty in cases of murder has varied substantially over the past 75 years. A majority of Americans supported the death penalty when Gallup first asked about it in 1936, and less than a majority supported it in various Gallup polls between 1957 and 1971, but support has returned to a majority level since. Support peaked in the 1990s as concerns about crime rose, but since that point it has declined, although a clear majority of Americans still favor its use in cases of murder.

Recent years have seen renewed controversy over the death penalty's use, including the 2010 execution of Teresa Lewis in Virginia, the first woman to be executed in that state in almost 100 years, and the execution of Davis in September of this year. It is not clear whether the death penalty will be an issue in next year's presidential race, although Texas Gov. Rick Perry was asked in a recent Republican debate about his state's status as the most frequent in carrying out the death penalty.

Historic trends from Gallup polling on capital punishment is available in an Adobe .pdf document.

News coverage of the polling includes:

"Gallup Poll: 35% oppose death penalty," by Gary Strauss at USA Today.

More than one-third of Americans now oppose the death penalty — the highest level in nearly 40 years — according to a Gallup Poll out Thursday.

Moreover, those who believe the death penalty is being applied fairly, and those who say it isn't used often enough, are at the lowest levels in a decade, underscoring significant changes in attitudes.

Gallup found that 35% of those polled oppose the death penalty — the highest opposition since March 1972. That year, the Supreme Court effectively ruled that the death penalty was constitutional unless it was applied unfairly. By 1976, several states had reinstituted capital punishment.

Just 40% of those polled last week believe the death penalty isn't imposed often enough, the lowest level since May 2001.

The poll was conducted shortly after two controversial cases drew attention: the September execution of Troy Davis and last week's Supreme Court hearing involving Alabama death row inmate Cory Maples.

CNN posts, "Number who prefer death penalty on decline."

When offered a choice between sentencing a murderer to capital punishment or life in prison with no chance of parole, half of all Americans say they prefer a life sentence over the death penalty - the first time that has happened in CNN polling.

Fifty percent would opt for a life sentence; 48% said they would choose the death penalty, revealing a nation divided when it comes to capital punishment.

Full results (pdf)

The remaining two percent had no opinion in the survey released Wednesday.

"That's not to say that Americans want to abolish the death penalty entirely," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "But there is a difference between thinking that the government should have the death penalty as an option and actually wanting to see it applied."

Seven years ago, 56% of the nation said they preferred the death penalty, a number that decreased to 53% in 2009 and to 48% now. At the same time the number of Americans who believe that at least one person in the past five years has been executed for a crime that he or she did not commit increased to 72%.

The issue of the death penalty has even found its way onto the 2012 campaign trail, with some media attention given to the controversy surrounding the execution of death row inmate Todd Willingham. Willingham, who maintained his innocence, received the death penalty while GOP contender Rick Perry served as governor of Texas.

In 2005, when a solid majority preferred the death penalty, 59% believed that an innocent person had been executed within the previous five years. The CNN/ORC International survey reveals that figure has risen thirteen points.

"Support for death penalty declines," at UPI.

Support for the death penalty is most often expressed by white, male Republicans more than 30 years of age who live in southern and Midwestern states, Gallup said.

The Gallup poll results are based on telephone interviews with 1,005 adults. The margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points.

"Poll: Death penalty support lowest ever," by MJ Lee at Politico.

The survey also indicates that Americans feel less confident that the death penalty is applied fairly than they have in recent years, with 52 percent saying they think the punishment is used fairly, down from 58 percent last year.

Republicans and independents who lean Republican are far more likely to approve of the death penalty — 73 percent of them said they approve, compared with 46 percent of Democrats and independents who lean Democrat. More men also expressed stronger support for capital punishment, with 64 percent of men saying they approve of the method while 57 of females said the same.

Support for the death penalty was highest in the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, with an all-time high of 80 percent expressing support for it in 1994.

Related posts are in the public opinon polling index.

California's Death Row

The Atlantic's November issue carries, "The Appeal of Death Row," written by Mary A. Fischer.

Experts on both sides of the death-penalty debate have long agreed that California’s system is the nation’s costliest and least efficient. This June, a landmark report by Paula M. Mitchell, a professor at Loyola Law School, and Arthur L. Alarcón, a senior judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, unearthed new data that reveal just how bad the system is.

Their report showed that since the current death-penalty statute was enacted in 1978, taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on only 13 executions, or roughly $308 million per execution. As of 2009, prosecuting death-penalty cases cost upwards of $184 million more each year than life-without-parole cases. Housing, health care, and legal representation for California’s current death-row population of 714—the largest in the country—account for $144 million in annual extra costs. If juries continue to send an average of 20 convicts to San Quentin’s death row each year, and executions continue at the present rate, by 2030 the ranks of the condemned will have swelled to more than 1,000, and California’s taxpayers will have spent $9 billion to execute a total of 23 inmates.

“I was stunned by the report,” said Loni Hancock, a Democratic state senator from Oakland and a member of the senate budget committee. Hancock had spent the previous five months agonizing over deep cuts to California’s general budget, and “it broke my heart,” she said. “That’s when I decided the time had come for Californians to reconsider the death penalty.”

And:

For the time being, Governor Brown has no comment on this issue, says a spokesman. As governor in 1977, he vetoed a pro-death-penalty bill, and last April, he stopped a $356 million expansion of San Quentin’s death row, calling the cost “unconscionable” in a time of deep budget cuts to education and social services.

"Repeal of death penalty could save millions of dollars, analysis finds," is the title of Will Evans' post at California Watch.

A nonpartisan analysis of a California ballot initiative to abolish the death penalty found that it could save the state and counties in the "high tens of millions of dollars" every year.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office review of the proposed initiative, which hasn't been cleared for signature gathering yet, put it in the middle of a debate over what the death penalty costs and what should be done about it. Some critics of the death penalty think it actually costs much more than the analysis said, while supporters of capital punishment think executions should be streamlined, not stopped, in order to cut costs.

The initiative was proposed in August after a bill to repeal the death penalty stalled in the state Legislature. In addition to eliminating capital punishment, the measure would require those convicted of murder to work in prison and provide $100 million over four years to local law enforcement to help solve homicide and rape cases. The proposal likely faces a rough road ahead, as a recent Field Poll [PDF] found a strong majority of Californians want to keep capital punishment, even as an increasing number prefer life in prison without parole.

And:

Loyola Law School professor Paula Mitchell, co-author of a recent study on the cost of California's death penalty, said the analyst's office report "severely underestimated" costs to taxpayers. Her study [PDF], written with U.S. 9th Circuit Court Judge Arthur Alarcón, found that California has spent $4 billion on the death penalty since 1978 and $184 million in 2009 alone. It was critical of past estimates by the Legislative Analyst's Office.

Mitchell said it was disappointing that the latest report did not include the hundreds of millions of dollars it would take to build a new complex for death row inmates, "which will be required if California keeps the death penalty."

"If the initiative process in California is going to function as an effective part of the democratic process, voters MUST be fully informed about the full costs of the programs they are asked to vote for or against," Mitchell wrote in an e-mail.

Earlier coverage from California begins with reporting on the Field Poll.

New Field Poll From California

The Complete Field Poll, "Tabulations From a Survey of California Registered Voters about the Death Penalty and Life in Prison Without the Possibility of Parole," is available in Adobe .pdf format.

"Field Poll: Less voter support for death penalty," is the San Francisco Chronicle's report written by Marisa Lagos.

As they have for more than five decades, California voters overwhelmingly support the death penalty - but in a marked shift, more voters now prefer that convicted murderers be sentenced to life without parole instead of death, according to the latest Field Poll.

The survey, conducted this month, comes as criminal-justice-reform advocates are gathering signatures for a 2012 ballot measure that would ban capital punishment in California.

The poll shows they have their work cut out for them: A solid 68 percent of voters favor keeping the death penalty, with conservatives overwhelmingly in support and nearly half of liberals opposed. But for the first time since the poll began asking the question 11 years ago, more voters - 48 percent - say they would prefer that someone convicted of first-degree murder serve life without the possibility of parole. Forty percent prefer the death penalty.

Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo noted that 11 years ago, 44 percent of those polled said they preferred death as punishment for first-degree murder and only 37 percent in favored life in prison. Last year, it was nearly evenly split.

But this year, the debate has gathered steam in California and elsewhere. The recent execution of a Georgia man many believe was innocent reignited the debate nationally, and executions have been on hold in California since 2006 because of a lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection method.

Forty-three percent of voters surveyed by the Field Poll said they think the death penalty is cheaper than life imprisonment, while 41 percent think it is more expensive.

"FIELD POLL: Voters divided over death penalty," by Ben Goad in the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Most California voters support the death penalty, but a growing number prefer sentencing convicted killers to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a new survey found.

 

Sixty-eight percent of the state's voters want to keep the death penalty in place, while 27 percent would like to get rid of it and 5 percent are without an opinion, according to today's Field Poll.

 

Forty-eight percent of voters would rather see a sentence of life without parole for someone found guilty of first-degree murder, while 40 percent would prefer to put them to death.

And:

The plurality of voters who favor life sentences over the death penalty represents a reversal from past polls. A similar poll conducted last year found voters split almost evenly on the issue. In 2000, 37 percent favored life in prison, while 44 percent preferred executing first-degree murderers.

"It's flipped in the last 11 years," said DiCamillo, who cited several factors that likely contributed to the reversal.

First is an increase of people who believe innocent people are executed too often and that there's no way to correct such mistakes. In 1989, just 23 percent of California's voters felt that way, but 39 percent now do, according to today's survey.

Over the same period, there has also been an increase, from 27 to 45 percent, in the number of voters who believe people sentenced to life without parole really will never get out of prison, the poll found.

"Californians remain staunchly in favor of death penalty, poll finds," by Sam Stanton in the Sacramento Bee.

As death penalty opponents work to get a ballot measure before California voters next fall to abolish capital punishment, a new Field Poll indicates the initiative would be a tough sell.

More than two-thirds of state voters – 68 percent – favor keeping the death penalty, the poll found, with 27 percent favoring abolition and 5 percent expressing no opinion.

"We've polled on this for 55 years," Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said. "It's changed a little here and there, but just removing the death penalty as a potential punishment is opposed. That's pretty clear."

Death penalty opponents launched an effort in August to replace capital punishment with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, something they said would save the state millions of dollars each year.

On that point, the poll released today found that more voters – 48 percent – now support imposing a life-without-parole sentence for first-degree murderers than those who favor the death penalty – 40 percent – in such cases.

"I think what the public had in mind is the use of the death penalty for very heinous crimes, like multiple cop killings or terrorists," DiCamillo said.

California Taxpayers for Justice has issued a news release, "Historic Turn Away from the Death Penalty in California; Strong Preference for Life Without Parole Among Voters."  Here's the complete release:

For the first time, a statewide poll conducted by Field Poll confirmed that more voters in California prefer a sentence of life without the possibility of parole over the death penalty.

“This is heartening news for SAFE California. We see this as a historic shift that will carry us through to the elections,” said Jeanne Woodford, former San Quentin warden and spokesperson for the campaign to put an initiative on the ballot to replace the death penalty with life without parole at the November 2012 election.

The Field Poll results document a 15-point shift over the last decade in support for life without parole over the death penalty. In 2000, polling numbers were at 37% to 44%, with the death penalty edging out life without parole. Last year, the same polling firm reported results of 42% to 41%, with a one-point preference for life without parole over the death penalty.

“What we have today is an 8-point preference for life without parole. This is very significant in terms of a shift in public opinion in support of replacing the death penalty that bodes very well for the ballot initiative,” said David Binder of David Binder Research. “It’s important to note that when voters hear the specifics of the measure—that convicted murderers will be required to work and pay restitution into a victims’ compensation fund and how much money will be saved—a strong majority of voters support the initiative.”

The SAFE California campaign also sets aside $100 million in budget savings in the “SAFE California Fund” to investigate open rape and murder cases.

“Once voters understand that the death penalty is far more expensive than life without parole we are sure that support will grow even stronger,” added Woodford. “While we pour money into a broken system, 46% of murders and 56% of reported rapes go unsolved every year in California. The poll results show California voters are ready to dump this dangerous system for one that actually provides savings and real public safety.”

Support for life without parole was particularly strong among Latino and African-American voters, at 55% and 66% support for permanent imprisonment over the death penalty respectively.

The SAFE California Campaign is supported by a coalition of law enforcement, murder victim family members and exonerees, along with a broad range of organizations, that will soon begin gathering signatures to place an initiative on the ballot to replace California’s costly death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole.

Related posts are in the public opinion polling index.  Earlier coverage of the California ballot initiative begins at the link.

New Public Opinion Polling

CBS News reports, "Support for the death penalty for convicted murderers at a 20-year low."  It's written by Fred Backus.  A detailed statistical breakdown of the polling results is at the link.

Here's an excerpt from the narrative:

A majority of Americans continue to support the death penalty for persons of convicted of murder, but that support is at the lowest it has been for the past twenty years, according to the latest CBS News/New York Times Poll.

Currently, 60 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for convicted murderers, while 27 percent are opposed. This percentage is down slightly from when it was last asked in May of last year, and down 18 percentage points from when the question was first asked by CBS in October 1988, at the height of a presidential campaign in which Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis was being buffeted by charges of being soft on crime during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts.

This poll was conducted from September 10th through September 15th - a few days before the execution of Troy Davis on September 21st in Georgia for the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail.

When comparing views on the death penalty between now and approximately twenty years ago, while Republicans continue to show strong support for the death penalty, a marked decline can be seen among both Democrats and independents.

Gallup polls indicate similar results over the past twenty years, and a fluctuation in approval over the past seven decades. According to Gallup, a slight majority of Americans supported the death penalty in 1936 and up through the 1950s, with public opinion dividing on the issue in the mid 1960s. In 1972 - when the U.S. Supreme Court briefly ended capital punishment in the United States for four years - a majority was once again in favor of the death penalty. By the time capital punishment was resumed in 1976, two-thirds of Americans were in favor of the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, with support reaching its high point in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Related posts are in the public opinion polling index.

Much More on the Troy Davis Execuion

In this post I'll be linking to news analysis of the execution.  The next posts will focus on commentary and editorials.

Today's New York Times reports, "In Death-Penalty Debate, Execution Offers Little Closure."   It's by John Schwartz.

The nature of those doubts and the arguments for Mr. Davis’s innocence could be, and will be, debated endlessly. And while no judge who reviewed the minimal physical evidence and the testimony and witness recantations ever overturned Mr. Davis’s conviction — one judge dismissed the defense arguments as “smoke and mirrors” — activists portrayed the case as a symbol of the fallibility of eyewitness identification, of the intransigence of the justice system and of its unwillingness to correct errors — and even as a failure of the nation itself.

“The execution of an innocent man crystallizes in the most sickening way the vast systemic injustices that plague our death penalty system,” Denny LeBoeuf, director of the Capital Punishment Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

Amnesty International, which mobilized much of the opposition to the Davis execution, pledged to redouble its efforts against the death penalty in the United States, and the executive committee of the N.A.A.C.P. voted this week to raise the death penalty to the forefront of its list of priorities in future advocacy.

Stephen Dear, executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, an interfaith advocacy group based in Carrboro, N.C., said his group also planned to use the momentum generated by religious leaders who opposed the Davis execution to galvanize broader opposition. “This has been a teachable moment for America’s religious leadership: that the death penalty is so awash with bias and errors that there’s no morally acceptable alternative but repealing it,” Mr. Dear said.

But can the debate over the death penalty even be called a national conversation, or is it simply two factions shouting past each other? Does it change hearts and minds, or harden advocates in their positions? Brawls, after all, do not persuade.

This execution underscores the uncomfortable relationship Americans have with the death penalty. A Gallup poll last October showed that 64 percent of those surveyed supported it for those convicted of murder, a level that had been relatively consistent for the previous seven years. Support had been higher — 80 percent in 1994 — but it has slipped, in part because of the hundreds of convictions overturned because of DNA evidence.

Gallup has asked whether people favor life imprisonment without parole as an alternative to the death penalty, and those surveyed are almost evenly split, with 49 percent supporting capital punishment and 46 percent preferring life imprisonment.

AP's Greg Bluestein files, "Death penalty opponents regroup after Davis' death."  It's via the San Francisco Chronicle.

Capital punishment critics are regrouping after the execution of Georgia inmate Troy Davis, trying to figure out the best way to harness the anti-death penalty sentiment the case created. Among the goals: get new like-minded people registered to vote.

"Tell them to get engaged in the political process because that's where change is going to come," said Helen Butler, executive director of the Atlanta-based Coalition For The Peoples' Agenda.

Butler was among a group of about two dozen death penalty opponents who met Thursday night in Atlanta to discuss how they could abolish capital punishment in Georgia. They are a small piece of the hundreds of thousands of people the Davis case attracted, from well-known supporters like the pope and former president Jimmy Carter to those much-less politically active.

Laura Moye of Amnesty International said she expects the Davis execution to be used to rally repeal movements across the country. She plans to meet with activists in Georgia over the next few days to plot out an attempt to banish capital punishment there.

"I'm meeting people who didn't really ever speak about the death penalty and now they are. They're hungry about the information and now they know," she said.

And:

Already, there are calls for lasting changes to the capital punishment system from Davis' advocates. Former President Carter said he hopes "this tragedy will spur us as a nation toward the total rejection of capital punishment." Filmmaker Michael Moore posted a statement on his website calling for a boycott of Georgia.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who visited Davis on death row, said he will push for a national ban on capital punishment in cases that rely on eyewitness testimony. Maryland passed such a law in 2009.

"We must not only mourn what happened to Troy Davis but take strong measures so that it does not happen again," Sharpton said.

The Davis execution comes at a time when death penalty decisions are under increased scrutiny. The number of executions has dropped by half over the last decade, from 98 in 1999 to 46 in 2010. Illinois abolished capital punishment in March and several other states, including California and Connecticut, are expected to consider similar proposals next year.

Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution carries, "Troy Davis lost his life, will he win the PR battle," by Steve Visser.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock told the college students in a church outside the state prison near Jackson Wednesday night that they had joined the fight for racial justice in America with the stand against the execution of Troy Anthony Davis.

The battle was bigger, he said, than saving Davis' life. He said he talked to the condemned man this week and he asked him what he should tell the people.

"He said, "Tell them I am already victorious,"  said Warnock, the senior pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Stan Gunter had to agree. The executive director of the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council said that Davis and the mega public-relations machine behind him had managed to distort the facts of the murder case down to sound bite of  "seven  witnesses recanted or they backed off their testimony" which had allowed the well-funded NAACP and Amnesty International to portray Davis as an innocent man.

Court after court has upheld the legitimacy of the Davis conviction for the murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail and dismissed his claims of new evidence exonerating him. But despite the fact that the execution appears solidly grounded in law, by Wednesday night Davis' supporters appeared to have grown to include even supporters of the death penalty who doubted its fairness in this case in part because of the forces aligned against it.

"Troy Davis execution: Did the death penalty deliver justice?," by Patrik Jonsson at the Christian Science Monitor.

For thousands around the world, Mr. Davis's death marked a grave injustice, given vexing questions and new doubts about his guilt.

But while many saw the execution as symbolic of a fallible justice system, and an immoral punishment, others found their faith in the system reaffirmed by an abundance of court and executive reviews that, time after time, let the verdict against Davis stand.

The Davis case is but one in a long series of death penalty cases that push individual states to debate the morality, legality, and efficacy of the death penalty.

And:

One problem, legal analysts say, is courts are vested in jury verdicts, which can be fallible. Doubts alone are rarely enough to overturn a finding of guilt, but in cases like Davis's, where there is impassioned belief of innocence, it "raises doubts about whether the legal system can tolerate this potential error in allowing a person to be executed," says James Acker, a criminologist at State University New York in Albany.

But the Davis case also had powerful emotional impact that made him a cause célèbre among human rights activists working to end the US death penalty. A black man being executed for the murder of a white man in the Deep South raised longstanding and deep-seated concerns about racial inequities in the justice system.

Davis's execution stood in sharp contrast to the execution the same day in Texas of Mr. Brewer, a white man convicted and sentenced to death for a heinous hate crime against a black man.

"Can we have the death penalty and actually avoid the possibility of killing innocent people?" writes Rashad Robinson, executive director of the activist group Color of Change. "In a criminal justice system that routinely misidentifies black suspects and disproportionately punishes black people, black folks are more likely to be wrongfully executed."

Earlier coverage of Troy Davis' case and execution begins at the link.

News From DPIC

 Celeste Rosenlof posts, "Studies about death penalty show mixed opinion," at Utah's Deseret News.

According to a new fact sheet released by the Death Penalty Information Center, police chiefs ranked the death penalty last in ways to reduce violent crime.

A Gallup poll showed that the public agrees, as 64 percent of the public felt that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent or lower the murder rate, while 34 percent believe it does. The majority of criminology experts, 88 percent, "rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder," according to the DPIC fact sheet.

And:

The fact sheet said "a clear majority of (public) voters (61 percent) would choose a punishment other than the death penalty for murder."

Gallup found that in October 2010, 49 percent would chose the death penalty, and 46 percent prefer life imprisonment.

The fact sheet also pointed out that execution consistently costs states more than a life sentence, sometimes up to 70 percent more. The Gallup poll found that 11 percent of people said they favor the death penalty to "save taxpayers money (or the) cost associated with prison," and 37 percent favored it because "they took a life (it) fits the crime."

More at the Death Penalty Information Center website; related posts, in the public opinion polling index.

Death Penalty Information Center Issues 2010 Report

DPIC has issued The Death Penalty in 2010: A Year End Report, in Adobe .pdf format, today.

The news release announcing the report is titled, "DPIC's Year End Report: Executions Down 12% Nationwide, 29% in Texas; Death Sentences Near Historic Lows.  2010 Election Results Confirm Poll Finding Majority Favor Alternative Punishments and Will Support Politicians Who Vote for Repeal of the Death Penalty."

The country experienced a 12 percent decrease in executions in 2010 compared to 2009 and a more than 50 percent drop compared to 1999, according to a report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Texas had 29 percent fewer executions in 2010 than the previous year.

DPIC projects that the number of new death sentences will be 114 for 2010, remaining near last year's number of 112, which was the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Death sentences declined in all four regions of the country over the past ten years, with a 50 percent decrease nationwide when the current decade is compared to the 1990s.

"Whether it's concerns about the high costs of the death penalty at a time when budgets are being slashed, the risks of executing the innocent, unfairness, or other reasons, the nation continued to move away from the death penalty in 2010," said Richard Dieter, DPIC's Executive Director and the report's author.

Although the recent elections brought a dramatic shift in political alliances, candidates who questioned the death penalty were elected across the country, including governors in California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Kansas, and Illinois.

For example, Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris were elected as governor and attorney general of California, despite heavy TV ads attacking them as death penalty opponents. Daniel Malloy, who opposes the death penalty, was elected governor of Connecticut in the midst of a high-profile capital trial. As its new governor, Kansas elected conservative Sam Brownback, who has expressed moral reservations about capital punishment.

"This year's election results confirm polling data that suggests opposing the death penalty is an acceptable position for elected officials and candidates. Voters hold other issues, such as the economy and jobs, as much higher priorities," Dieter said.

In a poll conducted by Lake Research Partners this year, there was strong bi-partisan support for doing everything possible to prevent the execution of innocent people: at least 80 percent of Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Moderates and Liberals all supported that premise.

In the same poll, a clear majority (61 percent) of the public favored some form of life imprisonment and only 33 percent supported the death penalty as the punishment for murder. A plurality of voters in death penalty states said it would make no difference in their vote if a representative supported repeal of the death penalty. 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).

In Texas, evidence emerged of critical errors in two cases where executions had already occurred (Cameron Willingham and Claude Jones). In addition, Anthony Graves was exonerated from Texas' death row and the prosecutor acknowledged, "We found not one piece of credible evidence that links Anthony Graves to the commission of this capital murder … He is an innocent man."

Only 12 states carried out executions in 2010, mostly in the South, and only seven states carried out more than one execution. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 82 percent of the executions have been in the South. California has not had an execution in almost 5 years, and the same is true for North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and many other states that rarely carry out the death penalty.

(The Mississippi Attorney General has requested an execution to be set for December 29, but the court has not responded to this request, and it appears unlikely to occur. This execution, if it were to occur, would change the total number of executions in 2010.)

Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. DPIC was founded in 1990 and prepares in-depth reports, issues press releases, conducts briefings for the media, and serves as a resource to those working on this issue. DPIC is widely quoted and consulted by all those concerned with the death penalty.

The next post will link to news coverage.  Last week, the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty issued a report on Texas' use of capital punishment in 2010.

More on the cases of Anthony Graves, Claude Jones, and Todd Willingham at the links.