For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeffrey Garis, (215) 724-6120
Nearly Three Out of Four Pennsylvanians Support a Suspension of the Death
Penalty Until Its Fairness Can Be Studied, New Madonna Yost Poll Reveals
HARRISBURG, PA (March 27, 2001) - 72% of Pennsylvanians favor a
temporary halt to the administration of the death penalty until questions about
its fairness can be studied, according to a poll of 509 registered voters in
Pennsylvania conducted by Madonna Yost Opinion Research earlier this
month. This majority support for a death penalty moratorium comes despite
continued widespread endorsement of capital punishment as a concept. More
than half of the participants in the telephone poll also agreed that race and financial
status play a role in the administration of the death penalty.
Additionally, the poll found that more than two-thirds of Pennsylvanians would
support a sentence of "life in prison with no chance of parole as an
alternative to the death penalty, in order to eliminate the possibility of
executing an innocent person wrongly sentenced to death."
Pennsylvanians' support for a moratorium and study was higher than that
found among Americans overall in recent national polls. A July 2000 NBC
News/Wall Street Journal poll of 500 registered voters nationwide, conducted by
the polling organizations of Peter Hart and Robert Teeter, found 63% support
for a temporary suspension of executions. The statewide poll was
conducted by Terry Madonna and Berwood Yost of Madonna Yost Opinion Research,
an independent public-opinion research organization based in Millersville,
Pennsylvania. The margin of error is +/- 4.3%.
The results of the poll were released today at a press conference in the
Rotunda of the State Capitol in Harrisburg, with more than 400 moratorium
supporters from across the state in attendance. Those speaking in support
of a moratorium included Sr. Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, and
sponsors of death penalty moratorium legislation in the Pennsylvania Senate and
House of Representatives. Terry Madonna presented findings from the poll.
According to Jeffrey Garis, Executive Director of Pennsylvania
Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty, the Madonna Yost poll is a
hopeful sign. "It is clear that regardless of where Pennsylvanians
stand on the death penalty in theory, no one wants to see innocent people
executed because of their race or economic status," said Garis.
"The citizens of Pennsylvania strongly favor the reasonable step of at
least temporarily halting the death penalty while basic questions of fairness
are studied. Senate Bill 25 calls for this very thing. Death
penalty abolitionists and supporters can and must work together on their shared
concern for building a society that values justice, fairness, and safety for
all."
__________________________________________________________
Madonna Yost Opinion Research
Summary: Pennsylvania Death Penalty Poll
509 Registered Voters (PA)
March 2001
This report presents an overview of findings for a survey of
Pennsylvania voters' attitudes toward the death penalty. The survey,
conducted from March 3 -13, 2001, interviewed a randomly selected sample of 509
registered Pennsylvania voters (sample error of ± 4.3%). Madonna Yost Opinion
Research designed the survey. The survey finds that a large majority of
citizens favors the use of the death penalty, but that this support masks a
number of misgivings and concerns about its use. The survey also finds
that most voters are willing to have the death penalty suspended until
questions about its fairness can be further studied.
A majority (71%) of Pennsylvania voters favors the death penalty, which
is comparable to the support for the death penalty reported in national
surveys. In Pennsylvania, more men (82%) than women (72%), and more
whites (79%) than African-Americans (62%), favor the death penalty (although a
majority of voters in each group favors it). Support for the death
penalty is primarily based upon the desire for justice (61% of those who favor
the death penalty). Few people support the death penalty because they see
it as a deterrent (12%) or as less expensive than housing inmates for life
(8%). Those who oppose the death penalty do so because they simply
believe it is improper to take a life (53% of opponents). Only a few
(11%) opponents are primarily concerned about false convictions.
Although there is strong support for the death penalty in Pennsylvania,
there is equally strong support (67%) for a sentence of 'life in prison without
parole' as an alternative to the death penalty-even a majority (51%) of those
who 'strongly favor' the death penalty would accept this sentence.
Many citizens are unsure about how fairly the death penalty is
applied. About two in five (39%) voters say the death penalty is applied
fairly, while about one in three (34%) believes it is not, with the rest
unsure. Only fifteen percent of African-American respondents think
the death penalty is fairly applied. Most Pennsylvania voters want to see
questions about the death penalty's fairness resolved, as three in four (72%)
favor the suspension of the death penalty until questions about its fairness
can be studied.
Citizens are nearly unanimous (89%) in their belief that innocent people
are 'sometimes' convicted of murder; however, citizens also believe that wrong
convictions are relatively uncommon. Only one in twenty (5%) voters think
that the conviction of innocent persons is a 'frequent' occurrence.
Few people say that they base their votes on the death penalty
issue. Only one in ten (10%) voters has ever voted for a candidate based
on the death penalty issue.
A majority of voters believes that the poor are more likely than the
wealthy to be executed (69% agree) and that blacks are more likely than whites
to be executed (51% agree). Majorities also agree that it is too
expensive to keep convicted murderers in prison for life (66% agree) and that
the death penalty serves as a deterrent (54%).
COPIES OF ENTIRE QUESTIONNAIRE AND RESPONSES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
####
"Our goal is nothing less than total
abolition of the primitive practice of execution. All of the nations
closest to us in values have long ago abolished the death penalty . . .
Abolition is the path of civilization which our society, too, must someday
trod. We act to hasten the arrival of that blessed day."
-Tom O'Rourke (1934 - 2001) - Chairperson, Pa. Coalition
to Abolish the Death Penalty, and Pa. Abolitionists Steering Committee member
*****************************************************************************
PENNSYLVANIA ABOLITIONISTS
United Against the Death Penalty
P.O. Box 58128, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Phone: 215-724-6120 Fax: 215-729-6189
Website: www.pa-abolitionists.org
*****************************************************************************