Oklahomans in favor of death penalty

Monday, March 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- While most Oklahomans favor the death penalty and efforts to shorten the appeals process for death row inmates, many are doubtful that capital punishment deters violent crime.

The Oklahoman/OU Poll showed 75 percent in favor of the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. Fifteen per cent opposed capital punishment while another 10 percent was undecided. The poll was featured in a copyright story in The Sunday Oklahoman.

The University of Oklahoma Public Opinion Learning Laboratory conducted the scientific telephone poll of 402 Oklahomans between Feb. 28 and March 6.
The poll has a plus or minus error rate of 5 per cent and a confidence interval of 95 percent.

Gov. Frank Keating said he is not surprised by the results. "That's my value system. That's their value system," Keating, a staunch death penalty supporter, said of Oklahomans. "At the very least, the person who's executed will never do it again."

But one death penalty opponent said the results of the survey reflect a lack of knowledge. "The more people learn the reality of how the system works in capital cases, the more their support for the death penalty is challenged," said Kevin Acers, a board member of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Acers is president of the Oklahoma City chapter of Amnesty International.

Support for the death penalty dropped to 51 percent in the poll results when Oklahomans were given the choice of life in prison with no chance for parole for convicted murderers. Twenty-five percent favored life without parole, 20 percent said it depends and four percent said they didn't know.

The Rev. Bryan Brooks, pastor of two Catholic churches in Okmulgee, said society can protect itself from violent criminals without taking another life. "Most people who commit serious crimes don't put a lot of thought into the consequences ... especially crimes committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol," said Brooks, who is active with the Death Penalty Institute of Oklahoma.

In a national Gallup Poll, 66 percent of Americans favored the death penalty for convicted murderers. The poll results indicated the lowest level of support since 1981.

The poll was conducted two weeks after the American Bar Association's president, Oklahoma City lawyer William Paul, cited a "growing momentum" for a national moratorium on the death penalty.

Keating said the system is working in Oklahoma, and the death penalty is used "very sparingly ... in only the most egregious cases."

Since 1977, there were 8,000 homicides and 22 executions in Oklahoma, the governor said. The average appeal time for death row inmates has been 12 years.

Keating said during his tenure as governor there has not been a question raised about the guilt or innocence of a death row inmate who was executed. "There may be issues about poor childhoods or violent or abusive parents, but never an issue raised about guilt or innocence," said Keating.

"Instead of a moratorium, which in effect would say, 'TimothyMcVeigh lives,' we should look at every case and make sure through DNA testing and other scientific advances that in fact the accused person did it."