According to a new poll by Public Policy Polling, a major­i­ty of Pennsylvanians find some form of a life sen­tence to be prefer­able to the death penal­ty, and more sup­port the death penal­ty mora­to­ri­um imposed by Governor Tom Wolf than oppose it. When asked what sen­tence they pre­ferred for peo­ple con­vict­ed of mur­der, 54% of respon­dents select­ed some form of life sen­tence, while 42% pre­ferred the death penal­ty. 50% were in favor of the Commonwealth’s death penal­ty mora­to­ri­um, includ­ing 29% who say they ​“strong­ly sup­port” it. 44% said they opposed the mora­to­ri­um. The poll, which was com­mis­sioned by Dr. Eric Ling, a crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­fes­sor at York College, also asked respon­dents whether they thought the death penal­ty or life with­out parole was more expen­sive. 70% erro­neous­ly believed that life with­out parole was the more expen­sive pun­ish­ment. Dr. Ling said, ​“This poll sug­gests that there is a real­ly sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ty to explain to vot­ers why the death penal­ty costs so much more than a sen­tence of life in prison with­out parole. Pennsylvania has spent $350 mil­lion on the death penal­ty over the past few decades while car­ry­ing out just three exe­cu­tions. Clearly, more infor­ma­tion about how much the state is real­ly spend­ing on the death penal­ty and what tax­pay­ers are get­ting in return would be help­ful. This is the type of infor­ma­tion the Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment should be able to shed some light on when they issue their report.” (Click image to enlarge.)

(J. Muphy, ​“Death penal­ty los­ing pub­lic sup­port in Pa., poll shows,” The Patriot-News, March 25, 2015.) See Public Opinion and Death Penalty in Flux.

Citation Guide