According to new polling results, sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in North Carolina has fall­en dra­mat­i­cal­ly, with only 25% of vot­ers say­ing they pre­fer the death penal­ty for peo­ple con­vict­ed of first-degree mur­der. The poll, con­duct­ed the last week of January 2019 by Public Policy Polling, found that near­ly three quar­ters of North Carolina vot­ers reject­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for peo­ple con­vict­ed of mur­der, with 35% pre­fer­ring a com­bi­na­tion of life with­out parole plus a require­ment to work and pay resti­tu­tion; 19% pre­fer­ring life with­out parole; 12% favor­ing a lengthy prison term, plus resti­tu­tion, with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole; and 6% favor­ing a lengthy prison term, with­out resti­tu­tion. When asked whether North Carolina should keep the death penal­ty or replace it with life with­out parole, a major­i­ty of North Carolina vot­ers (51%) said the state should replace the death penal­ty, while 44% said the state should keep it. Six per­cent said they were not sure.

The poll also dis­closed that North Carolina vot­ers have seri­ous con­cerns about the admin­is­tra­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. 70% said it was like­ly that North Carolina has exe­cut­ed an inno­cent per­son. 24% said it was unlike­ly the state had done so. 57% said they believed it is like­ly that racial bias affects whether a per­son is sen­tenced to death and 75% believe defen­dants should be able to present evi­dence that racial dis­crim­i­na­tion affects cap­i­tal tri­als. 39% said racial bias was unlike­ly to have affect­ed sen­tenc­ing and 18% would deny a defen­dant the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present evi­dence of bias. North Carolina vot­ers also favored efforts to reform the state’s death penal­ty. More than two-thirds (68%) said they favored ban­ning the death penal­ty for defen­dants with severe men­tal ill­ness. 61% favored requir­ing the courts to reex­am­ine death sen­tences imposed in North Carolina cas­es tried before the state enact­ed a series of reforms designed to pro­tect defen­dants’ rights, pro­vide more com­pe­tent rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and ensure fair tri­als. Nearly three-quar­ters of North Carolina’s death row pris­on­ers were sen­tenced before these reforms.

(Kristin Collins, News Release: New poll shows death penal­ty sup­port­ers now in the minor­i­ty among N.C. vot­ers, Center for Death Penalty Litigation, February 6, 2019.) Read the poll results here. See Public Opinion.

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