The effect of wrongful conviction rate on death penalty support: a research note

Abstract

This research examines whether the information about different wrongful conviction rates would affect death penalty opinion. It is the first experiment to examine how different estimates of the rate of wrongful conviction, rather than general information of innocence, affect views about capital punishment. I use Amazon Mechanical Turk to conduct the survey experiment. Five hundred two respondents were randomized into different groups to receive different information about wrongful conviction rate. People who were informed of a wrongful conviction rate of 4.1% were significantly less likely to support the death penalty compared to people who were told no information of the wrongful conviction rate. But knowing a wrongful conviction rate of 1% did not affect people’s death penalty support. Information about different wrongful conviction rates had different effects on death penalty support. An accurate estimate of the wrongful conviction rate plays an important role in altering death penalty opinion.