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American Morning

Gallup Poll: How Do Americans View the Death Penalty?

Aired May 07, 2001 - 09:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A former attorney for Timothy McVeigh says the Oklahoma City bomber's execution could make him a martyr. Stephen Jones also repeated his contention that the bombing was part of a broader conspiracy.

And he says McVeigh's death will prevent authorities from ever identifying the others involved; 168 people were killed in the bombing. McVeigh's execution is scheduled for May 16. Jones says the execution will give McVeigh the platform he wanted and create a wider forum for his anti-government views.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: McVeigh's impending execution has focused more attention on the debate over capital punishment and the public's views about the death penalty.

And we're going to take a closer look now at public opinion with Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport who checks in this morning from Princeton, New Jersey.

Good morning, Frank.

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Good morning, Leon.

In fact, we have over eight out of 10 Americans who say they favor, or at least agree that McVeigh should be executed as planned -- not really a surprise when we look at the history of attitudes towards the death penalty over the years.

One of the first questions Gallup ever asked, back in the 1930s, was about the death penalty. Way back then, in the Depression, 60 percent favored the death penalty in cases of murder. Now, the number's gone up and down. It came down in the '60s. That's when there was a moratorium on the death penalty.

But once they started up again in the '70s, you can see the percent favoring it went up all the way to 80 percent generically favoring the death penalty earlier in the '90s -- in our most recent asking: 67 percent overall in all cases. As I mentioned, it's 81 percent specifically for McVeigh.

A question a lot of people ask us is: Why do so many Americans favor the death penalty? Well, we asked Americans just that question -- let them tell us in their own words. Interestingly, over half who favor the death penalty say it's not deterrence. That's way down there on the list, as you can see here. It's justice: an eye for an eye. If someone kills somebody else, what Americans tell us, they themselves should be killed. That's what we come back with; 48 percent of Americans volunteer a response right along those lines.

Now, we do give people an alternative sometimes to say: All right, what if you were guaranteed that the killer, the murderer, the convicted murderer would be put in prison for the rest of their life -- no parole?

When we give them that option, about 42 percent choose it. But look at this: Even with that, over half of Americans say they favor the death penalty.

Likely to be a lot of protesters in Terra Haute at that execution -- who is most likely to oppose the death penalty nationwide? Well, it's nonwhites, women more likely to oppose it than men, younger people a little more likely to oppose it than older Americans, and Democrats than Republicans.

But, the bottom line, Leon: American want murderers to pay an equal price. And that's what they're telling us they want to see on May 16 -- back to you in Atlanta.

HARRIS: Boy, interesting.

Thanks Frank -- interesting where that deterrence falls on that list. Most authorities cite deterrence as the No. 1 reason for keeping that -- interesting.

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