The Popular Death Penalty

The nation's courts were meant to be not a barometer of prevailing public opinion but an arbiter of law. Nevertheless, as the Supreme Court of California last February and later the U.S. Supreme Court moved to outlaw capital punishment, Californians at least may feel justified in claiming that the high judges are acting against the popular will. A Mervin Field California Poll disclosed last week that the death penalty is growing rather than receding in popularity. Fully 66% of Californians now favor use of the gas chamber for those who commit serious crimes, while only 24% oppose it and 10% are undecided. That is an increase of 17% in pro-death sentiment since the first such sounding in 1956 and an increase of 8% since last year.

The pollsters did not ask why Californians are becoming tougher on this issue. Some researchers speculate that people are getting fed up with such spectacular crimes as skyjacking and Manson-style mass murder. On a more personal level, more and more people are becoming the victims of street muggings and assaults. Although Californians do not demand the death penalty for these offenses, such violent criminal episodes perhaps promote a psychology of implacability and, at least in theory, a taste for social vengeance.

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