Ohio Poll Shows Bipartisan Support for Death Penalty Repeal

A major­i­ty of Ohioans sup­port repeal of the state’s death penal­ty, a new­ly released statewide poll suggests. 

Fifty-four per­cent of Ohioans respond­ing to an on-line poll by the Tarrance Group said they pre­ferred some form of life in prison over the death penal­ty (34%) as the pun­ish­ment for mur­der. Fifty-one per­cent said they sup­port­ed replac­ing Ohio​’s death penal­ty with a pun­ish­ment of life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, ris­ing to 59% when respon­dents were pro­vid­ed infor­ma­tion about Ohio’s appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty, includ­ing the fre­quen­cy of wrong­ful con­vic­tions, the high cost of cap­i­tal cas­es, and the lack of deterrent effect.

Replacing the death penal­ty with life with­out parole received sup­port across par­ti­san lines. Before being pro­vid­ed with infor­ma­tion about the admin­is­tra­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, more Republicans favored replace­ment (48%) than opposed it (37%). Independents were about even­ly split (37% sup­port, 38% opposed), with a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion (25%) unsure. A major­i­ty of Democrats (58%) sup­port­ed repeal and replace­ment. After infor­ma­tion on inno­cence, costs, and oth­er issues was pre­sent­ed, majori­ties of Republicans (53%) and Democrats (70%) sup­port­ed elim­i­nat­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in favor of life sen­tences, while sig­nif­i­cant­ly more Independents sup­port­ed replace­ment (48%) than opposed it (29%).

The poll of 600 reg­is­tered Ohio vot­ers, which has an error rate of ± 3.9%, was com­mis­sioned by the ACLU of Ohio and Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE). The poll was con­duct­ed between September 29 and October 1, 2020 and the results were released January 28, 2021.

The poll comes at a time of flux for Ohio’s death penal­ty. The state has what Governor Mike DeWine called an ​“unof­fi­cial mora­to­ri­um” on exe­cu­tions because the state can­not obtain lethal-injec­tion drugs with­out plac­ing the state’s sup­plies of nec­es­sary med­i­cines at risk. DeWine has said it is unlike­ly that there will be any exe­cu­tions in 2021. Ohio also recent­ly enact­ed a law that bars the death penal­ty for defen­dants with seri­ous mental illness. 

In the wake of the pas­sage of the men­tal ill­ness bill, “[t]he momen­tum to repeal the death penal­ty is at an all-time high,” said OTSE Executive Director Hannah Kubbins. ​“This devel­op­ment has sparked more con­ver­sa­tions about how Ohio can build a more equi­table crim­i­nal legal sys­tem,” she said. ​“Furthermore, we know the death penal­ty is not an effec­tive response to vio­lence, and that it won’t pre­vent future vio­lence or heal past violence.”

Despite the his­tor­i­cal­ly racial­ly divi­sive nature of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, death-penal­ty replace­ment drew strong sup­port across racial lines. Hispanics were most sup­port­ive of sub­sti­tut­ing life with­out parole for the death penal­ty (68%), fol­lowed close­ly by African Americans (64%). A major­i­ty of Whites (58%) also sup­port­ed elim­i­nat­ing the death penal­ty. Women were more sup­port­ive of repeal­ing the death penal­ty (62%) than men (56%). Every age demo­graph­ic also favored end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, with young peo­ple (18 – 34) the most sup­port­ive of abo­li­tion (62%). However, those aged 35 – 44 and over 65 were near­ly as sup­port­ive (61%). Support for replac­ing the death penal­ty dipped slight­ly, to 55%, among those aged 45 – 64.

ACLU of Ohio Policy Director Jocelyn Rosnick said the Ohio poll ​“con­firms what we’ve been hear­ing across the state — which is that vot­ers oppose the death penal­ty. Whether it’s due to racial dis­par­i­ty [or] fis­cal or inno­cence con­cerns, peo­ple all across the state and across the aisle believe that it’s time for Ohio to cut ties with the death penal­ty. Ohio won’t be the first state to pass a full repeal,” she said, ​“and we shouldn’t be the last.”