By Greg Gross
The York Dispatch
YORK, Pa. — A poll commissioned by a York College professor and released on Wednesday shows a slim majority of polled Pennsylvanians support Gov. Tom Wolf’s decision to temporarily put a hold on executions.
Fifty-four percent of the pollees also prefer some form of a life sentence rather than a death sentence, according to the poll done by Public Policy Polling of North Carolina.
Eric Ling, an associate professor of criminal justice, said he commissioned the poll to see how attitudes were shaped by the governor’s decision to put a moratorium on the death penalty in February.
“Pennsylvanians are moving with the time,” he said of the results. “I think now’s the time for reconsideration.”
The poll: Of the 632 registered voters polled, 29 percent strongly support and 21 percent somewhat support Wolf’s decision, while 15 percent somewhat oppose and 29 strongly oppose. Five percent of those polled weren’t sure, according to the poll.
Thirty-two percent said they prefer a sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for someone convicted of murder, while 42 percent said they prefer the death penalty. Additionally, 13 percent said they prefer a sentence of life with a chance of parole after 20 years, and 9 percent said they prefer a sentence of life with a chance of parole after 40 years. Four percent said they aren’t sure, the poll says.
The poll has a 4.2 percent margin of error and also addresses fiscal aspects of the death penalty.
It is the first of its kind since the governor said he won’t sign death warrants, which authorize executions to be carried out, until a report on the death penalty by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission is completed and reviewed.
Since Wolf won’t sign death warrants, the secretary of corrections, John Wetzel, must sign a notice of execution and schedule a time to carry out the execution. But Wolf has been granting reprieves to death row inmates who have executions scheduled.
Swayed: Richard Long, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, said he saw the poll and believes the phrasing of the questions swayed pollees toward giving an anti-death penalty answer.
For example, the question about Wolf’s decision lists “concerns about the risk of executing innocent people, the high cost of the death penalty and serious issues of unfairness” as reasons why Wolf imposed the moratorium.
“I believe the phrasing of the questions are suggestive,” he said. “I think that influences the answers you’re going to get.”
The association has come out against Wolf’s decision, saying that as governor, he is violating state law by not signing death warrants. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams filed a lawsuit against Wolf, arguing the moratorium is unconstitutional.
National trend: Though the recently released poll shows Pennsylvanians appear to back Wolf’s decision, it bucks the national trend of support for the death penalty.
A Gallup poll released in October shows 63 percent of those polled favor the death penalty for someone convicted of murder, while 33 percent oppose it and 4 percent aren’t sure.
The death penalty is legal in 32 states.
There are 186 people, 13 of whom were convicted in York County, on death row in Pennsylvania, the fifth-largest population in the nation.
However, the last execution in the state was carried out in 1999.
Proponents have long said the death penalty serves as a deterrent and brings closure to victims’ families.
But that’s not always the case, Ling said, considering almost all death sentences are appealed. That causes families to rehash the crime each time an appeal is filed.
Appeals also cause the convicted to sit on death row for years, if not decades, at the expense of taxpayers.
It costs more to house an inmate on death row as opposed to that inmate serving a life sentence, Ling pointed out.
“The thing about the death penalty is it’s a false promise,” he said, adding there’s always the possibility that a guilty conviction in a capital case could be overturned because new evidence could clear the presumed guilty inmate of the crime.
However, Long said the death penalty is necessary for some cases, particularly heinous murders.
“We believe the death penalty is the appropriate punishment in the worst of the worst circumstances,” he said.