Nearly three-quar­ters of Kentuckians (72.4%) would sup­port a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions while prob­lems in the admin­is­tra­tion of Kentucky’s death penal­ty are addressed, accord­ing to a new poll released on August 1 by the University of Kentucky Survey Research Center. Nearly two-thirds (62.6%) of those who said they sup­port the death penal­ty were nev­er­the­less in favor of a mora­to­ri­um. The poll also found that 57.8% of respon­dents pre­ferred a lengthy prison term (options ranged from 20 – 50 years to life with­out parole) over the death penal­ty for peo­ple con­vict­ed of first-degree mur­der. Respondents also were asked their views about spe­cif­ic con­cerns relat­ed to the death penal­ty. 68% said they would sup­port replac­ing the death penal­ty with life with­out parole if admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty and its con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly-man­dat­ed appeals were found to cost sub­stan­tial­ly more than life in prison. 71.6% of all respon­dents — includ­ing 61.4% of death penal­ty sup­port­ers — agreed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment risks exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. Finally, when asked to con­sid­er the impact of lengthy appeals on vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, 64% of Kentuckians sup­port­ed replac­ing the death penal­ty with life with­out parole. Kentucky Public Advocate Ed Monahan said, ​“Clearly, Kentuckians remain uncom­fort­able with death as a sen­tence. Their dis­com­fort is well found­ed. Our sys­tem of admin­is­ter­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is bro­ken, cost­ly and pro­duces lit­tle val­ue. Full reform must take place now.” Gennaro Vito, a crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­fes­sor at the University of Louisville, told the Kentucky News Service: ​“You may have to ques­tion, giv­en the prob­lems we’ve had with the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty in this state, why we would con­tin­ue to use it, when so many Kentuckians are in favor of the sen­tence of life with­out parole in place of the death penal­ty.” The last exe­cu­tion in Kentucky was car­ried out in 2008. (Click image to enlarge.)

(G. Stotelmyer, ​“Poll: Kentuckians Want Executions Halted Until Problems Fixed,” Public News Service, August 1, 2016; Press Release, ​“Kentuckians sup­port halt to exe­cu­tions until bro­ken sys­tem is fixed,” Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, August 1, 2016.) See Public Opinion. For more infor­ma­tion on the Kentucky poll results, see What Kentuckians Say About the Death Penalty.

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