A recent Alabama opin­ion poll found that less than half of those sur­veyed believe Alabama’s death penal­ty is applied fair­ly and 57% of respon­dents sup­port a tem­po­rary halt to exe­cu­tions in the state until ques­tions about fair­ness and reli­a­bil­i­ty are stud­ied. In oth­er find­ings, 96% of those sur­veyed sup­port the use of DNA in cas­es where it might prove guilt or inno­cence and 62% said they would be more like­ly to vote for a can­di­date who sup­port­ed sus­pen­sion of the death penal­ty until ques­tions about the use of DNA test­ing have been answered.

​“The evi­dence of unfair­ness sur­round­ing the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty is so over­whelm­ing that it’s not sur­pris­ing that more folks are acknowl­edg­ing it,” said Bryan Stevenson, Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery.

The statewide poll was con­duct­ed in July 2005 by Capital Survey Research Center, the polling arm of the Alabama Education Association. (Associated Press, July 29, 2005). See Public Opinion and Innocence.




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