New Poll: Voters Overwhelmingly Oppose Las Vegas DA Seeking the Death Penalty Against Vulnerable and Impaired Persons

Likely vot­ers in Clark County, Nevada over­whelm­ing­ly oppose the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment against broad cat­e­gories of vul­ner­a­ble and impaired per­sons whom coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors have been try­ing to exe­cute, a new poll released by Vegas Watch on January 27, 2022 shows. 

The poll, con­duct­ed by the Justice Research Group from December 1 to 13, 2021, found a sig­nif­i­cant dis­con­nect between vot­ers’ views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the prac­tices of Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson (pic­tured). According to Vegas Watch, Clark County pros­e­cu­tors have ​“repeat­ed­ly [sought] death against peo­ple who are men­tal­ly ill and have intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties — includ­ing for­mer ser­vice mem­bers strug­gling with PTSD.” On the oth­er hand, sub­stan­tial bipar­ti­san majori­ties of the county’s vot­ers told the poll­sters that they oppose using the death penal­ty against these individuals.

The poll ques­tions asked 314 like­ly vot­ers, ​“Do you sup­port or oppose Clark County dis­trict attor­ney Steve Wolfson seek­ing a death sen­tence against” six dif­fer­ent types of defen­dants: peo­ple with a diag­nosed men­tal ill­ness, seri­ous intel­lec­tu­al impair­ment, trau­mat­ic brain injury, vet­er­ans who suf­fer from post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, those who expe­ri­enced severe phys­i­cal or sex­u­al abuse as a child, and defen­dants who were between the ages of 18 and 21 at the time of the offense. By mar­gins of bet­ter than 2 to 1, vot­ers opposed seek­ing the death penal­ty against those with men­tal ill­ness, intel­lec­tu­al impair­ment, or brain dam­age, and vet­er­ans with PTSD. With sig­nif­i­cant par­ti­san dif­fer­ences, vot­ers nar­row­ly opposed seek­ing the death penal­ty against ado­les­cent offend­ers and vic­tims of abuse. 

Voter oppo­si­tion was great­est when it came to seek­ing the death penal­ty against vet­er­ans with PTSD. 62% of vot­ers said Wolfson should not seek a death sen­tence ​“against a per­son who suf­fers from post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der after serv­ing their coun­try in the U.S. Armed Forces,” while 23% sup­port­ed such pros­e­cu­tions. 69% of Democrats, 60% of Independents, and 52% of Republicans opposed cap­i­tal­ly pros­e­cut­ing vet­er­ans with PTSD, while 12% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans and Independents supported it. 

Wolfson is cur­rent­ly seek­ing to exe­cute Zane Floyd, a dec­o­rat­ed Marine with brain dam­age who was diag­nosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome after his deploy­ment in Guantánamo Bay. Wolfson sought and obtained a war­rant for Floyd’s exe­cu­tion in May 2021, while the Nevada State Senate was con­sid­er­ing a bill to abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty. The Senate major­i­ty leader and the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee are both employ­ees of the Clark County DA’s office, and although the bill had passed the state House of Representatives, it nev­er received a hear­ing or a vote in com­mit­tee in the Senate.

Clark County vot­ers by a 37-per­cent­age-point mar­gin opposed ​“seek­ing a death sen­tence against a per­son with seri­ous intel­lec­tu­al impair­ment.” 60% of respon­dents, includ­ing 67% of Democrats, 60% of Independents, and 52% of Republicans opposed such pros­e­cu­tions, while 27% of Republicans, 21% of Democrats, and 20% of Independents sup­port­ed them. 59% opposed ​“seek­ing a death sen­tence against a per­son with a diag­nosed men­tal ill­ness” and ​“against a per­son with a trau­mat­ic brain injury.” 67% of Democrats, 60% of Independents, and 48% of Republicans opposed cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions of those with men­tal ill­ness. 68% of Democrats, 63% of Independents, and 43% of Republicans opposed cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions of those with brain injuries. 29% of Republicans and 23% of Democrats and Independents sup­port­ed the use of the death penal­ty against the men­tal­ly ill. 35% of Republicans, 22% of Democrats, and 19% of Independents endorsed cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion of brain injured defendants.

Clark County respon­dents expressed sig­nif­i­cant par­ti­san dif­fer­ences over the use of the death penal­ty against ado­les­cent offend­ers and vic­tims of phys­i­cal or sex­u­al abuse. A 45% plu­ral­i­ty of respon­dents opposed ​“seek­ing a death sen­tence against a per­son who has endured severe phys­i­cal or sex­u­al abuse as a child,” while 36% sup­port­ed it. Democrats opposed such pros­e­cu­tions, 52% to 31% and Independents were split even­ly 39% to 39%. Republicans nar­row­ly approved of seek­ing the death penal­ty in cas­es of severe abuse, 40% to 38%.

When it came to ado­les­cent offend­ers, a nar­row plu­ral­i­ty, 46% to 43% opposed ​“seek­ing the death penal­ty against a per­son who is over the age of 18 but under the age of 21.” Democrats strong­ly opposed the prac­tice, 60% to 28%, while Republicans even more strong­ly sup­port­ed it, 62% to 25%. Independents nar­row­ly opposed such pros­e­cu­tions, 48% to 45%. 

Clark County’s Capital Prosecution Practices

Wolfson was the lead wit­ness against a bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty that was intro­duced in the Nevada leg­is­la­ture dur­ing the 2021 leg­isla­tive ses­sion. During his tes­ti­mo­ny, Wolfson said, ​“the death penal­ty should be reserved for the very rare and extreme cir­cum­stances” and claimed he sought it in only ​“the worst of the worst” cas­es. Assistant Public Defender Scott Coffee dis­put­ed that notion, telling Vegas Watch that Wolfson had filed 128 notices of intent to seek the death penal­ty since becom­ing District Attorney in 2012. ​“These cas­es are filed like can­dy,” he said.

Clark County has imposed more death sen­tences in the last decade than all but three coun­ties in the nation, trail­ing only Riverside, CA; Los Angeles, CA; and Maricopa, AZ. They are the only coun­ties in the coun­try to have aver­aged more than one death sen­tence per year since 2012. All the oth­er coun­ties in Nevada com­bined have imposed just one new death sen­tence in the past decade.

A Death Penalty Information Center analy­sis of death-row data col­lect­ed by the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund found that, as of October 1, 2020, the 52 peo­ple on death row or fac­ing cap­i­tal retri­als or resen­tenc­ings in Clark County were more than in all but six oth­er U.S. coun­ties. By itself, Clark County account­ed for three-quar­ters of Nevada’s death-row population. 

A 2016 study by Harvard University’s Fair Punishment Project found that of the 16 most pro­lif­ic death-sen­tenc­ing coun­ties in the U.S. in the years 2010 through 2015, Clark County had the high­est rate of con­vic­tions or death sen­tences over­turned as a result of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The Project report­ed that the Nevada Supreme Court had found mis­con­duct in 47% of the Clark County death penal­ty cas­es it reviewed on direct appeal dur­ing the previous decade.