A recent Colorado poll con­duct­ed by RBI Strategies and Research found that 63% of cit­i­zens believe that mon­ey spent on the death penal­ty would be bet­ter used to close unsolved mur­der cas­es. Citizens like­ly to vote in the next elec­tion were told that the death penal­ty costs the state an extra $3 mil­lion per year, and then asked ​“would you favor or oppose replac­ing the death penal­ty with life impris­on­ment with no pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, and using the mon­ey saved to track down and pros­e­cute the killers in unsolved mur­der cas­es?” Forty-three per­cent were strong­ly in favor of such a change in spend­ing and anoth­er 20% some­what in favor. Only 27% opposed such a redi­rec­tion of funds. Interestingly, vot­ers were gen­er­al­ly against cut­ting mon­ey from the law enforce­ment bud­get to pur­sue cold cas­es, but were in favor of cut­ting the mon­ey from death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tions. The poll found that Coloradans were even­ly split on the prop­er pun­ish­ment for mur­der, with 45% sup­port­ing life with­out parole and the same per­cent­age sup­port­ing the death penal­ty.

Colorado has exe­cut­ed one per­son in the past 40 years and has one inmate on death row. 

(RBI Strategies & Research report, February 2008). Posted April 8, 2008. See the poll results here. See Public Opinion.

Citation Guide