(Angus Reid Consultants – CPOD Global Scan) – More adults in the Empire State choose two alternatives over capital punishment, according to a poll by the New York Times. 56 per cent of respondents believe life in prison—with or without parole—should be the penalty for persons convicted of murder.
(Angus Reid Consultants – CPOD Global Scan) – More adults in the Empire State choose two alternatives over capital punishment, according to a poll by the New York Times. 56 per cent of respondents believe life in prison—with or without parole—should be the penalty for persons convicted of murder.
Since 1976, 949 people have been put to death in the United States, including five during 2005. More than a third of all executions have taken place in the state of Texas. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia do not engage in capital punishment, and a moratorium on executions has been issued in Illinois.
New York reinstated capital punishment in 1995. Last June, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s death penalty is illegal. The state has not executed a single person since 1963.
Polling Data
What do you think should be the penalty for persons convicted of murder—the death penalty, or life in prison with no chance of parole, or a long prison sentence with a chance of parole?
Death penalty | 34% |
Life with no parole | 43% |
Life with parole | 13% |
Don’t know | 11% |
Source: The New York Times
Methodology: Telephone interviews to 1,822 New York adults, conducted from Feb. 4 to Feb. 13, 2005. Margin of error is 3 per cent.
