| Abstract: | The Supreme Court has recently decided to re‐examine the constitutionality of executing individuals under the age of 18 at the time of the offense. The Supreme Court’s reliance on public opinion as evidenced through opinion polls and changing laws in the 2002 Atkins decision has suggested that public opinion may play a role in the Court’s decision regarding juvenile executions. There is considerable evidence that the majority of Americans favor a ban on juvenile executions. In the current study, we use Oklahoma data collected in 2003 by the Oklahoma University Public Opinion Learning Laboratory to examine more closely the factors that predict a support of a ban on juvenile executions. Interestingly, only one fourth of Oklahomans oppose such a ban. Earlier research suggested that religious fundamentalism is linked to support of juvenile executions, but we did not find this, suggesting that public opinion may be shifting. We then analyzed the data separately by race and then by sex. Our findings suggest that there may be differences between groups in the predictors of support for a ban on juvenile executions, at least in Oklahoma, indicating the need for further research. |
