An April 2004 poll of North Carolinians revealed that 63% of respon­dents sup­port a halt to exe­cu­tions while the state’s death penal­ty is stud­ied, and many respon­dents have doubts about the accu­ra­cy of the death penal­ty. ​“Support for the two-year sus­pen­sion of exe­cu­tions is wide­spread and cuts across all demo­graph­ic groups, regions of the state and polit­i­cal par­ty affil­i­a­tion. This is clear­ly an issue that res­onates with the peo­ple of North Carolina,” stat­ed John Doble, founder of Doble Research Associations, the nation­al non-par­ti­san firm that con­duct­ed the poll. In addi­tion to sup­port for a mora­to­ri­um, the poll found that 71% of respon­dents believed that North Carolina def­i­nite­ly or prob­a­bly freed some­one from death row in the last 20 years because he was inno­cent, and 56% of respon­dents believed that the state has prob­a­bly exe­cut­ed an inno­cent per­son dur­ing the past two decades. While the major­i­ty (59%) of those polled favored the death penal­ty, this num­ber dropped to 33% when respon­dents were giv­en the sen­tenc­ing option of life with­out parole; and it fell even fur­ther – to 26% — when they were giv­en the option of life with­out parole plus resti­tu­tion to the vic­tims’ fam­i­ly. Regarding elec­tions, 59% said that it would make no dif­fer­ence in their vote if a can­di­date for the leg­is­la­ture sup­port­ed a mora­to­ri­um bill. In fact, 24% said that they would be more like­ly to sup­port a can­di­date who sup­port­ed the tem­po­rary halt to exe­cu­tions, and only 12% said that they would be less like­ly to sup­port that same can­di­date. The North Carolina Senate passed a bill to impose a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions while a study is con­duct­ed, and the mea­sure is cur­rent­ly under con­sid­er­a­tion in the House. The mea­sure would be the nation’s first mora­to­ri­um passed into law by a state leg­is­la­ture. (North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium Press Release, May 17, 2004). See Public Opinion and read the Press Release.

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