THE FIELD POLL THE INDEPENDENT AND NON-PARTISAN SURVEY OF PUBLIC OPINION ESTABLISHED IN 1947 AS THE CALIFORNIA POLL BY MERVIN FIELD Field Research Corporation 601 California Street, Suite 210 San Francisco, CA 94108-2814 (415) 392-5763 FAX: (415) 434-2541 EMAIL: fieldpoll@field.com www.field.com/fieldpollonline Release #2486 Release Date: Friday, September 12, 2014 VOTER SUPPORT FOR THE DEATH PENALTY DECLINES IN CALIFORNIA. By Mark DiCamillo and Mervin Field IMPORTANT: Contract for this service is subject to revocation if publication or broadcast takes place before release date or if contents are divulged to persons outside of subscriber staff prior to release time. (ISSN 0195-4520) Support for the death penalty as a punishment for serious crimes in California is now at its lowest point in nearly fifty years. The latest Field Poll finds 56% of voters in favor of keeping the death penalty and 34% opposed. The 56% supporting continuation of the state s capital punishment laws is down from 69% in 2011. Throughout the 1980 s and early 1990 s eight in ten California voters favored keeping the death penalty. The current survey also finds voters more divided when asked about a federal judge s ruling that the state s implementation of the death penalty is unconstitutional due to the length of time it takes to carry out an execution. In light of the ruling, voters were asked whether the state should work to speed up the execution process or do away with the death penalty and replace it with the penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Statewide, 52% support speeding up the process, while 40% favor replacing the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. These are the findings from the latest Field Poll, conducted by telephone among 1,280 registered voters in California in six languages and dialects. Voter support for the death penalty at fifty-year low The Field Poll has been tracking California public opinion about the death penalty for over fifty years. The current survey finds 56% of registered voters in favor of keeping the death penalty as a punishment for serious crimes. The last time The Field Poll found public support for the death penalty in California dipping below 60% was 1971, when 58% favored it and 34% wanted to do away with it. Support for the death penalty reached a high point in the mid-1980 s and early 1990 s when 80% or more favored it. By contrast, the all-time low in California voter support for keeping the death penalty was in 1956 when just 49% favored it. Field Research Corporation is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Friday, September 12, 2014 Page 2 Table 1 Trend of voter opinion toward keeping the death penalty in California (among registered voters) Favor keeping it Do away with No opinion 2014 56% 34 10 2011 68% 27 5 2010 70% 24 6 2006 67% 29 4 2004 68% 26 6 2002 72% 25 3 2000 63% 30 7 1997 74% 20 6 1992 80% 14 6 1989 82% 14 4 1986 83% 14 3 1985 83% 15 2 1981 78% 17 5 1979 75% 20 5 1977 71% 23 6 1971 58% 34 8 1965 51% 39 10 1960 55% 35 10 1956 49% 29 22 Note: Surveys conducted prior to 2002 asked of all California adults, not just registered voters. Voters divided when asked what the state should do in light of a federal judge s ruling that the way the death penalty is administered is unconstitutional Federal district judge Cormac J. Carney recently ruled that the state s prolonged delays in administering the death penalty render it unconstitutional because of the Eighth Amendment s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In his ruling Carney said, For all practical purposes then a sentence of death in California is a sentence of life imprisonment with the remote possibility of death a sentence no rational legislature or jury could ever impose... (It) has resulted in a system in which arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones, like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determine whether an individual will actually be executed. And, it has resulted in a system that services no penological purpose. Such a system is unconstitutional. In light of this ruling, voters in this survey were asked whether the state should work to speed up the execution process or do away with the death penalty entirely and replace it with the penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Friday, September 12, 2014 Page 3 The results show Californians are divided on the matter, with 52% favoring a speed up in the execution process and 40% supporting replacing it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Another 8% had no opinion. Table 2 What should California do in light of a federal judge s ruling the California s death penalty is unconstitutional because it takes so long for the state to carry out an execution (among California registered voters) Total statewide Speed up the execution process 52% Do away with the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole No opinion 8 40 The death penalty divides voters along socio-demographic lines Republicans, conservatives, Protestants, and Central Valley voters are the strongest supporters of the death penalty, and large majorities also favor speeding up the execution process rather than doing away with the death penalty to comply with the judge s ruling. Democrats, liberals, voters under age 30, African Americans, residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, those with a post graduate education, and voters either affiliated with a non-christian religion or having no religious preference are the most likely subgroups to favor replacing the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole to comply with the judge s ruling.
Friday, September 12, 2014 Page 4 Table 3 Overall voter opinions toward the death penalty and what the state should do in light of the federal judge s recent ruling across subgroups of the registered voter population Overall opinions In light of judge s ruling Keep the Replace it with death penalty Do away with it Speed up executions life in prison without parole Total statewide 56% 34 52% 40 Party registration (.44) Democrats 48% 43 43% 48 (.29) Republicans 71% 21 69% 26 (.27) No party preference/other 53% 35 49% 40 Political ideology (.15) Strongly conservative 78% 19 72% 25 (.15) Moderately conservative 72% 21 61% 31 (.45) Middle-of-the-road 57% 33 53% 39 (.10) Moderately liberal 44% 45 38% 47 (.15) Strongly liberal 29% 61 28% 62 Race/ethnicity (.61) White non-hispanic 57% 35 57% 37 (.23) Latino 58% 32 49% 41 (.06) African American* 46% 42 28% 62 (.10) Asian American 47% 30 44% 39 Region (.28) Los Angeles County 54% 34 45% 45 (.31) Other Southern California 57% 33 59% 34 (.16) Central Valley 64% 26 60% 30 (.20) San Francisco Bay Area 51% 43 43% 50 (.05) Other Northern California* 59% 41 60% 34 Gender (.48) Male 59% 35 53% 41 (.52) Female 53% 34 51% 38 Age (.18) 18 29 51% 39 41% 48 (.17) 30 39 61% 33 59% 35 (.16) 40 49 57% 33 54% 38 (.27) 50 64 61% 32 54% 39 (.22) 65 or older 50% 36 51% 38 Education (.20) High school graduate or less 62% 28 53% 41 (.32) Some college/trade school 61% 30 57% 35 (.26) College graduate 57% 35 52% 38 (.21) Post-graduate work 41% 47 43% 48 Religion (.37) Protestant/Christian (non-catholic) 67% 23 66% 28 (.24) Catholic (.14) Other non-christian religions 60% 43% 30 49 48% 38% 44 52 (.23) No preference/none 45% 48 46% 50 * Small sample base. 30
Friday, September 12, 2014 Page 5 Methodological Details Information About The Survey The findings in this report are based on a Field Poll completed August 14-28, 2014 among 1,280 California registered voters. Interviews were administered by telephone using live interviewers in six languages and dialects English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, and Vietnamese. The overall sample included supplemental interviews conducted among the state s growing ethnic voter population. Funding for the survey s supplemental interviews conducted with Asian American voters was provided by Professor Karthick Ramakrishnan of the University of California, Riverside as part of the National Asian American Survey project. Individual voters were sampled at random from voters with telephones drawn from the statewide voter registration rolls. The supplemental sample of Asian Americans was developed from voter roll listings targeting Chinese American, Korean American and Vietnamese American voters based primarily on their ethnic surnames. Once a voter s name and telephone number had been selected, interviews are attempted only with the specified voter on either their landline or cell phone, depending on the source of the listing from the voter file. After the completion of interviewing, the overall sample was weighted to align it to the proper distribution of voters by race/ethnicity and other political, demographic and geographic characteristics of the California voter population. Sampling error estimates applicable to the results of any probability-based survey depend on sample size and the percentage distributions being examined. The maximum sampling error for results from the overall sample in this survey is +/- 3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The maximum sampling error estimates are based on survey findings in the middle of the sampling distribution (i.e., results at or near 50%). Percentages at either tail of the distributions (i.e., results closer to 10% or 90%) have somewhat smaller margins of error. There are other potential sources of error in surveys of public opinion besides sampling error. However, the overall design and execution of this survey sought to minimize these other possible errors. The Field Poll was established in 1947 as The California Poll by Mervin Field, who is still an active advisor. The Poll has operated continuously since then as an independent, non-partisan survey of California public opinion. The Field Poll receives financial support from leading California newspapers and television stations, who purchase the rights of first release to Field Poll reports in their primary viewer or readership markets. The Poll also receives funding from the University of California and California State University systems, who receive the data files from each Field Poll survey shortly after its completion for teaching and secondary research purposes, as well as from foundations, non-profit organizations, and others as part of the Poll s policy research program. Questions Asked As you know, California has capital punishment that is, execution as a form of punishment for certain crimes. How do you personally feel about capital punishment? Would you be in favor of doing away with the death sentence, or do you feel that the death sentence should be kept as a punishment for serious crimes? Last month a federal judge ruled that California s death penalty law is unconstitutional because it takes so long for the state to carry out an execution. What action do you favor California taking in light of this ruling: (1) Should it take steps to speed up the execution process; or, (2) Should it do away with the death penalty and replace it with the sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole? (ANSWER CATEGORIES READ IN RANDOM ORDER)