Nearly 3/​4 of Kentuckians Support Moratorium on Executions, Majority Prefer Lengthy Prison Terms to Death Penalty

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.