application of the death penalty generally within the range of 70 percent of those surveyed.
These public attitudes have been tapped very effectively in recent campaigns. For example, a major 1986 campaign effort in California financed largely by the insurance industry successfully ousted Chief Justice Rose Bird and three other associates from the California supreme Court. The insurance industry campaign ran almost exclusively on the issue of Bird's opposition to the death penalty, but the industry in fact cared little about capital punishment; their interest was in reversing the court's "deep pockets" ruling and other potential decisions unfriendly to the insurance business.
More recently, the issue of capital punishment was a significant campaign issue in the 1988 presidential election. George Bush painted Michael Dukakis as soft on crime partly based on Dukakis' opposition to government-sanctioned executions. Bush's "William Horton" television commercials, which accused Dukakis of enacting an irresponsible furlough program for dangerous felons, dramatically complemented Dukakis' "soft" image. The Horton commercials were particularly effective following the Democratic candidate's impersonal response to a very personal death penalty question in the second televised presidential debate. The first question asked of Michael Dukakis in the second presidential debate is paraphrased as follows: You have expressed opposition to the death penalty in all cases. Would you continue to feel that way even towards a criminal who has raped and murdered your own wife? Many political strategists highlight this issue as the most decisive in the presidential election.
In accordance with popular opinion, 38 states have reinstituted the death penalty for certain crimes since 1976. The states that now provide a death penalty are listed in Table One.
Alabama.........Electrocution Alaska...........None
Arizona.........Gas Chamber ...