Poll: Three-Quarters of Dallas Voters Say They Prefer Life Alternatives to Capital Punishment

Three quar­ters of Dallas, Texas vot­ers say they pre­fer some ver­sion of life impris­on­ment over the death penal­ty for peo­ple con­vict­ed of first-degree mur­der, a new poll has found.

The poll, which was con­duct­ed on June 16 – 17, 2021 by the inde­pen­dent polling firm, Public Policy Polling (PPP), found broad sup­port for sweep­ing changes in death-penal­ty pol­i­cy in a coun­ty that is respon­si­ble for the sec­ond most exe­cu­tions in the United States since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment resumed in the 1970s. By wide mar­gins, Dallas vot­ers said they believed the county’s death penal­ty is affect­ed by racial bias and that inno­cent peo­ple have been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. More than 80% said they would sup­port the Dallas District Attorney’s office review­ing the cas­es of the 19 peo­ple cur­rent­ly on death row from the coun­ty ​“to ensure accu­ra­cy and fair­ness.” Nearly two-thirds said they would sup­port the Dallas D.A.’s office ​“pledg[ing] not to seek any new death sentences.”

Given a choice between life with­out parole, a life sen­tence with parole eli­gi­bil­i­ty after 40 years, a life sen­tence with parole eli­gi­bil­i­ty after 20 years, or the death penal­ty as pos­si­ble pun­ish­ments for first-degree mur­der, 75% of respon­dents chose some ver­sion of a life sen­tence (click here to enlarge graph­ic). A plu­ral­i­ty (29%) favored life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole after 40 years, fol­lowed by life with­out parole (26%), and life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole after 20 years (20%). Only 14% of respon­dents said they pre­ferred the death penal­ty. Twelve per­cent were undecided.

The poll is the sec­ond in just over a year to show a sea change in views on the death penal­ty in Texas’s most pro­lif­ic death-sen­tenc­ing coun­ties. According to the 2020 Houston Area Survey con­duct­ed by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, a record-low 20% of Houstonians pre­ferred the death penal­ty for mur­der. Houston is the coun­ty seat of Harris County, which has exe­cut­ed more pris­on­ers than any oth­er coun­ty in the U.S.

“These results affirm what we’ve observed for the past decade,” said Kristin Houlé Cuellar, the Executive Director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP), which com­mis­sioned the poll. ​“Texans of all polit­i­cal per­sua­sions are mov­ing away from the death penal­ty at a remarkable rate.”

In a press release accom­pa­ny­ing the release of the sur­vey results, TCADP char­ac­ter­ized the pref­er­ence for the death penal­ty over the life sen­tenc­ing alter­na­tives as ​“notice­ably low,” even among demo­graph­ic and polit­i­cal groups ​“that have his­tor­i­cal­ly sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” TCADP did not release the raw data con­tain­ing the results of the poll by demo­graph­ic and polit­i­cal sub­groups, but the press release indi­cat­ed that 26% of Republicans, 15% of those old­er than 65, 24% of white vot­ers, 20% of Protestants, and 18% of those with some col­lege edu­ca­tion but who did not fin­ish pre­ferred the death penal­ty over life sen­tenc­ing alter­na­tives. ​“Even among Trump vot­ers,” Houlé Cuellar said, ​“sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was notably low, with only 31% say­ing they pre­ferred the death penal­ty over alternatives.” 

Survey respon­dents expressed seri­ous con­cerns about the way that the death penal­ty is admin­is­tered in Dallas County. By a near­ly 4 to 1 mar­gin, Dallas vot­ers said they believed that it was like­ly ​“that an inno­cent per­son has been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Dallas County.” 69% of respon­dents said it was very like­ly or some­what like­ly that an inno­cent per­son had been sen­tenced to death, while 18% said it was very unlike­ly or some­what unlike­ly to have occurred. An iden­ti­cal per­cent­age said they believed that it is like­ly ​“that racial bias affects whether or not a per­son will receive a death sen­tence in Dallas County,” com­pared to 20% who said it was unlike­ly that race had affect­ed death sen­tences. Asked to name their biggest con­cern about using the death penal­ty, 64% of respon­dents said exe­cut­ing the inno­cent, 13% point­ed to inequities in its appli­ca­tion, and 4% each point­ed to its high cost and that it does not deter crime. 10 per­cent list­ed oth­er con­cerns and 4% said they weren’t sure.

PPP also sur­veyed Dallas vot­ers on the county’s poli­cies towards the death penal­ty. Asked their views on whether the Dallas County District Attorney should pledge not seek any new death sen­tences, 63% of poll respon­dents said they would sup­port such a pledge. Only 26% said they would oppose it. By an over­whelm­ing 83% to 8% mar­gin, poll respon­dents said they would sup­port the Dallas District Attorney review­ing the cas­es of the 19 indi­vid­u­als on death row in Dallas to ensure integri­ty and fairness.

“Voters in Dallas County are send­ing a strong mes­sage that they val­ue fair­ness and accu­ra­cy in the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem,” Houlé Cuellar said. 

Public Policy Polling is a nation­al polling firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina. It has an A- rat­ing for accu­ra­cy and method­ol­o­gy from FiveThirtyEight.