Three-quar­ters of Americans believe that an inno­cent per­son has been exe­cut­ed with­in the last five years and that con­vic­tion is result­ing in low­er lev­els of sup­port for the death penal­ty, accord­ing to a study pub­lished in the February issue of Criminology & Public Policy. The study, con­duct­ed by researchers James D. Unnever of Radford University and Francis T. Cullen of the University of Cincinnati, found that sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er among both blacks and whites who believe the death penal­ty is applied unfair­ly. Only 68.6% of respon­dents sup­port the death penal­ty among those who believe an inno­cent per­son has been exe­cut­ed, ver­sus 86.9% of the respon­dents who do not believe any inno­cent per­son has been exe­cut­ed. When life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole was offered as an alter­na­tive sen­tence for cap­i­tal mur­der, less than half of all Americans who believe an inno­cent per­son has been exe­cut­ed sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. The researchers ana­lyzed data col­lect­ed by the Gallup Organization to con­duct the study. Criminology & Public Policy is an aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nal pub­lished by the American Society of Criminology. 

(John Jay College of Criminal Justice Press Release, February 10, 2005). Read the Press Release. See also Public Opinion and Innocence.

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