POLL: Views of Nevada Voters Shift Dramatically Towards Death Penalty Abolition

New poll results show that more Nevadans now sup­port alter­na­tives to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and repeal­ing the death penal­ty than favor its con­tin­ued use, mark­ing a major shift in opin­ion in the state in just the past four years. 

A January 2021 poll of Nevada vot­ers by David Binder Research, released March 4, 2021, found that 49% of Nevadans favor replac­ing the state’s death penal­ty with life with­out parole, com­pared with 46% who would keep cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The results rep­re­sent a 20-per­cent­age-point shift from the respons­es to a 2017 poll by the Nevada Independent in which 66% of Nevada respon­dents said they sup­port­ed keep­ing the death penal­ty. At that time, just 27% of poll respon­dents said they sup­port­ed repeal. Majorities of both Democrats (69%) and Independents (51%) now favor abo­li­tion, the 2021 poll found. 

By a 17-per­cent­age-point mar­gin, Nevadans also expressed a pref­er­ence for long prison sen­tences over the death penal­ty as the appro­pri­ate pun­ish­ment for those who com­mit first-degree mur­der (click to enlarge graph­ic). Offered a choice among the death penal­ty, life with­out parole, life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole after 40 years, or life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole after 20 years, 53% of the survey’s 500 respon­dents chose one of the life-sen­tenc­ing options. 36% chose the death penal­ty. Among the life sen­tences, 27% of respon­dents favored life with­out parole, 13% favored life parole eli­gi­bil­i­ty after 40 years, and 14% favored life with parole eli­gi­bil­i­ty after 20 years.

“Nevadans are real­iz­ing what’s been the truth for or what’s been becom­ing appar­ent for the past sev­er­al decades, which is the death penal­ty is bro­ken,” said Scott Coffee, a pub­lic defend­er and board mem­ber of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, which com­mis­sioned the poll. ​“There’s a lot bet­ter ways to ser­vice our com­mu­ni­ty and pro­tect our community.”

Respondents were asked their views on the issue a sec­ond time, after being pre­sent­ed with facts about the appli­ca­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. They were informed about issues of inno­cence, costs, and geo­graph­ic and racial dis­par­i­ties. After these facts were offered, those pre­fer­ring life sen­tences increased to 58%. The pro­por­tion of respon­dents who sup­port­ed repeal also grew by five per­cent­age points, from 49% to 54%.

The Nevada leg­is­la­ture is expect­ed to con­sid­er repeal leg­is­la­tion this ses­sion. Fifty-six orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing faith groups, legal orga­ni­za­tions, and orga­ni­za­tions that advo­cate for peo­ple with men­tal ill­ness, have signed a let­ter sup­port­ing the repeal of Nevada’s death penalty.