A recent survey was conducted in Oklahoma to gauge locals’ support for the death penalty, and the Oklahoman reported on the poll’s findings. Reporter Silas Allen wrote,
While more than three-quarters of those polled said they supported the death penalty, about 53 percent said they’d be willing to see the state do away with capital punishment if those who would typically be sentenced to death were instead given life sentences without the possibility of parole, forfeited all property and were ordered to pay mandatory restitution to victims’ families for the rest of their lives.
But it should be noted that a plurality of Republicans also expressed their discomfort with the death penalty. Allen explained,
Support for the idea wasn’t limited to one political party: About 58 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of independents said they’d support the plan. About 48 percent of Republicans said they’d support it, while 41 percent said they’d oppose it and another 10.4 percent said they didn’t know.
Allen also interviewed me for the article:
Part of the reason for that shift could be a growing number of conservatives who oppose the death penalty. Marc Hyden, national advocacy coordinator for the nonprofit Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, said many conservatives are beginning to see the death penalty as “a big, broken government program.”
Conservatives generally support limited, efficient government, Hyden said — a category that he says the death penalty doesn’t fit.
“I don’t think there’s anything limited about giving an error-prone state the power to kill its citizens,” he said.
Most conservatives favor strict, rigid justice, Hyden said. For years, conservative voters thought the death penalty could be an effective punishment for the most heinous criminals, he said. But more recently, as mistakes and problems with states’ execution protocols have come to light, many are beginning to abandon those ideas, he said.
“It’s not just a flash in the pan,” he said. “This is something that’s been bubbling for a long time.”