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A recent poll con­duct­ed by Public Policy Polling indi­cat­ed a strong major­i­ty of North Carolina res­i­dents pre­fer replac­ing the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out parole (LWOP), as long as some con­di­tions are imposed. According to the sur­vey, 68% of respon­dents sup­port replac­ing the death penal­ty with LWOP if the offend­er had to work and pay resti­tu­tion to the victim’s fam­i­ly. Sixty-three per­cent (63%) sup­port repeal­ing the death penal­ty if the mon­ey saved was redi­rect­ed to effec­tive crime fight­ing tools. And more than half (55%) of the respon­dents sup­port­ed end­ing the death penal­ty if the mon­ey saved was redi­rect­ed to solv­ing cold cas­es and assist­ing vic­tims of crime. Tom Jensen, direc­tor of Public Policy Polling, not­ed the change occur­ring on this issue: ​“The days when the death penal­ty enjoyed near-uni­ver­sal sup­port are clear­ly over,” he said. ​“Across the coun­try, poll after poll has shown that. These results show that peo­ple in North Carolina are will­ing to con­sid­er alter­na­tives to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” Read full results of the survey.

Public Policy Polling sur­veyed 600 North Carolinians by tele­phone between February 7 – 10, 2013. Forty-four per­cent (44%) of respon­dents iden­ti­fied them­selves as con­ser­v­a­tive; 65% of those who called them­selves ​“some­what con­ser­v­a­tive” and 50% of those who self-iden­ti­fied as ​“very con­ser­v­a­tive” sup­port­ed switch­ing to life in prison with­out parole. North Carolina has not had an exe­cu­tion since 2006.

(H. White, ​“Poll: N.C. res­i­dents reject death penal­ty,” Charlotte Post, March 4, 2013). See Public Opinion and Life Without Parole.

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