QUICK POLL RESULTS ON THE DEATH PENALTY

Smart girls decide for themselves.™

We asked you about the death penalty. 836 girls and 43 boys, ages 8-50, responded. (2 respondents chose not to reveal their gender.) The average age of everyone who responded was 14 and a half years old.

SmartGirl asked, “Do you believe in Capital Punishment (the death penalty)?”

Figure 1.1

40% said, It depends on the crime.
35% said No.
17% said Yes.
7% said, I’m not sure.
2% did not give an answer.

SmartGirl users think about the death penalty in 26 countries- with 72% in the USA and 28% from all over the world!

SmartGirl asked, “Do you understand the opposing view and why someone could feel that way?”

73% said yes.
15% said I’m not sure.
9% said No.
3% did not give an answer.

SmartGirl asked, “Which form of Capital Punishment do you think is most humane?”

Figure 1.2

The following graph shows the results to the SmartGirl question, “Which form of Capital Punishment do you think is least humane?”

Figure 1.3

SmartGirl asked, “What is your best argument for your opinion? Please explain why you are for or against the death penalty.”

20% said an eye for an eye.
15% said the death penalty was acceptable for “bad” things and/or it depended on the crime.
10% said it was up to God and that no one has the right to take another’s life.
9% said that suffering in jail is worse than death or that death is not the same as punishment.
9% said that carrying out the death penalty makes us just as guilty as the criminals- it makes us criminals too.
7% said that the people put to death could be innocent.
7% said that two wrongs do not make a right.
2% said that taxpayers should not have to pay for criminals to sit in jail because they are just taking up room.
.5% said we should rehabilitate the prisoners instead of killing them.
21% gave several reasons/or other reasons.

Here’s what SmartGirls had to say about the death penalty: 

• "My father killed my baby brother and all I have to say is I rather have him sitting in prison and thinking about what he has done because I really think that is a bigger punishment than death.  My dad will be in prison for the rest of his life so if anything don't kill [a person]- just make them sit in prison and die there."

• "I believe if you take a life, you give a life- your own."

• "Everyone deserves a second chance and it is hypocritical to say that because one person killed someone, they also deserve to die."

• "I am for it only under the most dire of circumstances - I would condone it for crimes like rape, murder, child molesting, and other extremes, but ONLY if the perpetrator was proven guilty beyond any doubt and rehabilitation was deemed nigh impossible."

• "It depends on the crime, but I think that if someone killed a very large number of people like in the OK bombing it's okay to give them the death penalty because they took the lives of so many innocent people and they deserve a taste of their own medicine."