Raleigh, N.C. – More North Carolina citizens support the death penalty as justice for violent crimes than ever before according to a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute.
According to the live caller poll of 600 likely voters, 70 percent said they support the death penalty for violent crimes. Twenty percent said they were opposed and 10 percent said they were not sure.
Legislative and administrative roadblocks have imposed a de-facto moratorium on the death penalty in North Carolina. The last death penalty sentence was carried out on August 18, 2006.
“Once again we have an issue in the death penalty that is overwhelmingly supported by the voters of North Carolina but is blocked by a small cabal of elected officials and special interest groups,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “In fact, instead of bringing justice to cold-blooded killers and peace to the families of their victims, the General Assembly has taken steps, like the Racial Justice Act, to further remove capital punishment as an option for prosecutors.”
Support for the death penalty has remained consistently high throughout Civitas’ five years of polling with support at never less than 60 percent.
Additionally, support for the death penalty remains a bipartisan issue among North Carolina voters with 59 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of unaffiliated voters and 82 percent of Republicans in support.
The Civitas Poll is the only monthly live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina. The Institute will host its 5th anniversary poll luncheon on Wednesday, April 28 at 11:30 a.m. at the North Raleigh Hilton. Event information can be found at http://www.nccivitas.org/events/. For more information on Civitas polling see www.nccivitas.org/media/poll-results/.
Full text of question:
Do you support or oppose the death penalty for violent crimes?
Support – 70%
Oppose – 20%
Not Sure – 10%
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
This poll of 600 likely general election voters in North Carolina was conducted April 13-15, 2010 by Tel Opinion Research of Alexandria, Virginia. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters we interviewed had to have voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
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