Poll Shows Continued Strong Support For the Death Penalty in California, or Does It?

The Field Poll conducted earlier this month and released yesterday shows consistent and substantial public support in California for keeping the death penalty as a form of punishment for capital crimes.

As the Field Poll points out, “There has been no appreciable change in this division of sentiment over the past fifteen years.”  However, the death penalty support is down from its high watermark of 83% in the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.

Republicans have the highest level of support for the death penalty at 81%, but even the majority of Democrats, 57%, favors its continuation.

However, that is not the end of the story.

Writes Mark DiCamillo and Mervin Field, “The central finding from this survey is that, while there continues to be strong support for keeping the death penalty as a punishment alternative, there is a growing tendency of voters to favor life in prison without parole over capital punishment for those convicted of first degree murder.”

“Despite Californians’ long-held support for the death penalty, more voters now prefer life in prison without the possibility of parole over the death penalty for someone convicted of first degree murder, by a 48% to 40% margin,” they write.

Back in 2000 when the question was first posed, 44% supported the death penalty over life in prison (37%).  Last year, the opinion was evenly divided, as 42% favored life in prison without parole and 41% favored the death penalty for capital cases.

This is not an anomaly to this poll. Indeed, it has been a consistent finding across all polls that the public is willing to support the death penalty, until they are offered the alternative of life without parole.

The Field Poll also asked four related questions: (1) how often are innocent people executed in capital cases? (2) does a life sentence without parole mean what it says or do persons receiving this sentence sometimes get out of prison? (3) is the death penalty fairly administered to ethnic populations or are they treated differently than whites? and, (4) what are voter perceptions about the relative financial costs of the death penalty vs. life imprisonment?

A small majority of respondents argue that “innocent people are executed so rarely that it is an unimportant consideration to them when weighing the issue.”  This is compared to the 39% who say this happens too often and there is no way to correct these mistakes.  The views on this are more divided than they were in 1989 when the Field Poll first asked it. Back then the split was 64-23, feeling there was only a rare execution of innocent people.

Second, “Despite Californians’ long-held support for the death penalty, more voters now prefer life in prison without the possibility of parole over the death penalty for someone convicted of first degree murder by a 48% to 40% margin.”

Since 1989, the number who believe that a life sentence without parole means what it says, that the prisoner will never get out of prison, has jumped from 27% to 45%.

Research even indicates, “No one sentenced to life without parole has ever been released on parole, in California or in any other state. Prisoners sentenced to LWOP actually remain in prison for the rest of their lives and die in prison.”

Unless, of course, a governor grants clemency – but even then it is very rare.  According to the ACLU, “No Democratic or Republican governor has ever granted clemency to a prisoner serving an LWOP sentence in California, and no such prisoner has ever been released on parole.”

Furthermore, “The last time a governor used his power of executive clemency in a murder case was more than 30 years ago, when Ronald Reagan commuted the death sentence of a mentally ill inmate to a life sentence.”

Remarkably, the voters remain split on the fair administration to ethnic populations.  “Voters are split on the question of whether ethnic populations are more likely to receive the death penalty than whites. At present, 45% think people of color are more likely to receive this sentence, while 41% say they are not.”

That marks only small movement since 1989, when 50 percent felt “ethnic populations were no more likely than whites to be executed, while 41% felt they were more likely.”

Finally, the cost issue has had an effect.

According to the Field Poll, “In 1989 about twice as many Californians felt that it was cheaper to impose the death penalty because of the higher costs associated with housing a prisoner for life (54%) than it was to impose the death penalty after considering the expense of appeals and legal costs (26%).”

Now, “Opinions about this are much more divided, with 43% believing that life in prison is cheaper, while 41% think the death penalty is less expensive.”

Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo pointed out that how voters answer those questions is directly tied into their support or opposition to the death penalty itself.

For example, the Field Poll finds that 74% of those favoring the death penalty in capital cases believe life in prison without parole doesn’t always guarantee that the prisoner won’t someday be released.

Overall, however, Mr. DiCamillo says voters have become more skeptical of capital punishment than they were back in 1989.

“There has been a change in attitude,” he said. “Twenty-two years ago, the death penalty side argument prevailed by a large majority – now voters are divided in their opinions on many statements, including the cost of death versus life in prison, does a life sentence actually guarantee they will stay in prison, whether innocent people are executed, and their views of how it is administered to the ethnic population.”

However, we believe that this poll has a couple of clear implications.

Despite all of the publicity surrounding the $184 million a year to maintain the current death penalty versus commuting all of the death sentences to life, the voters remain evenly split on which alternative is cheaper.

While that marks a big change from 1989 when it was a 2 to 1 ratio, that suggests that opponents to the death penalty still have a lot of work to do to make their case.

One problem is that it simply seems counterintuitive that death would be more costly than life and, indeed, a huge component of that is the length of time it takes to execute people and the fact that recently only 13 people have been executed.

Second, considering the Innocence Project’s work, the public remains skeptical that the execution of innocent people is a serious problem.  Will that change as more research comes out on exonerated individuals who were wrongly convicted for capital crimes or non-capital crimes?  Will the recent execution of Troy Davis and findings surrounding other potentially innocent individuals who were executed start to filter deeper in the mainstream voter’s collective consciousness?

Finally, the proposed voter initiative attacks the problem in the right way.  They seek to convert death sentences to life without parole.  They add in other benefits to murder victims and law enforcement.  And they focus on the cost issue.  That is the best path to go.  Will it work?  We suspect not this time, but it will be an interesting test.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

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