(Angus Reid – CPOD Global Scan) – Many adults in Connecticut support capital punishment, according to a poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. 59 per cent of respondents back the death penalty for persons convicted of murder.
(Angus Reid – CPOD Global Scan) – Many adults in Connecticut support capital punishment, according to a poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. 59 per cent of respondents back the death penalty for persons convicted of murder.
Since 1976, 944 people have been put to death in the United States, including 58 during 2004. 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.
In December, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state’s death penalty is unconstitutional, due to a provision on the way jurors should approach the issue of capital punishment during sentencing. Six inmates who were awaiting execution will be re-sentenced.
Connecticut adults are somewhat divided on how to deal with people convicted of murder. 37 per cent of respondents say death is a suitable punishment, while 49 per cent suggest life imprisonment without parole.
Michael Ross—who has admitted to killing eight women in Connecticut and New York in the early 1980s—is due to receive a lethal injection on Jan. 26. Ross will be the first person to be executed in Connecticut in more than 40 years. 70 per cent of respondents support capital punishment in this particular case.
Polling Data
Do you favour or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder?
Favour | 59% |
Oppose | 31% |
Unsure | 10% |
Which punishment do you prefer for people convicted of murder: the death penalty or life in prison with no chance of parole?
Death penalty | 37% |
Life, no parole | 49% |
Don’t know | 14% |
Michael Ross has admitted killing eight women in Connecticut and New York in the early 1980s. He is on Connecticut’s death row for the murders of four of those women. He is scheduled to be executed on Jan. 26. Do you favour or oppose the death penalty for Michael Ross?
Favour | 70% |
Oppose | 23% |
Unsure | 8% |
Source: Quinnipiac University Polling Institute
Methodology: Telephone interviews to 1,287 registered Connecticut voters, conducted from Jan. 7 to Jan. 10, 2005. Margin of error is 2.7 per cent. Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
