[Vision2020] Two Thirds of Kansans Support Life without Parole

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Good Morning Visionaries:

A recent post, with a lurid story about a killer killing again, missed the whole point about the widely supported nation-wide move to replace the death penalty with life WITHOUT parole.

PUBLIC OPINION: Poll Reveals Kansans Prefer Life Without Parole

A recent Kansas poll found that nearly two-thirds of respondents said they prefer a sentence of life in prison without parole in which the offenders would work in prison to pay restitution to the victims' families as an alternative to the death penalty. The poll also revealed that many Kansans think capital punishment is handed out unfairly. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they believe that some people are executed while others serve prison time for the same type of offense.

"There is not overwhelming support for the death penalty where there is an alternative available," said Ben Coats of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, the organization that sponsored the statewide poll conducted by Jayhawk Consulting Services.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in Kansas in 1994, 10 people have been sentenced to death, but none have been executed. Of the ten death sentences, one was removed by the prosecutor's request, and two have been vacated by the Kansas Supreme Court.

(Lawrence Journal-World, February 13, 2007).