56% of Americans: Loughner Should Get Death Penalty

Jared Loughner killed six people and injured over a dozen others in a rampage on January 8th.  Amongst those dead were a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge; amongst the injured was Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot through the head.  Now, according to a new poll, 56% of Americans believe that Loughner deserves the death penalty if he is convicted.

This solid majority is mirrored by only 24% of Americans who believe that Loughner should not get the death penalty.  The remaining 20% of those polled are undecided.

Loughner's attorney Judy Clarke, who also defended Ted Kaczynski and Zacarias Moussaoui, plans to plead "insanity."  However, only 28% of Americans believe that someone who pleads insanity should receive less punishment; 50% say that the convicted should be punished the same, regardless of pleas.

Loughner

Continuing the subject of insanity, Rasmussen reports:

Generally speaking, however, there is little disagreement when it comes to the punishment of suspects who are mentally ill: Majorities or pluralities in virtually all demographic categories think they should be punished the same as those who are not mentally ill.

Eighty-one percent (81%) of Adults say they have followed at least somewhat closely news reports about the recent shooting incident in Arizona, including 42% who have followed Very Closely.

Voters give mixed marks to the media’s handling of the Arizona incident, and most say the coverage focused too much on the political angle of the story. 

Despite the tragic shooting of the Democratic congresswoman, voter concern that opponents of President Obama’s policies will turn to violence has declined slightly over the past year. 

Oddly, the 56% of Americans that support Loughner receiving the death penalty is actually less than the percent of Americans that support it.  According to Rasmussen, 62% of Americans favor the death penalty, which means that at least 6% of those people do not support Loughner receiving the harshest of punishments.

Concerning the lies that the liberal Main Stream Media has spread in the aftermath of the shooting, only 28% of Americans believe that Loughner's rampage was the result of "political anger."  A solid majority, 58%, believe Loughner was simply an unstable man who got his hands on a deadly weapon.

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