U.S. Senator Santorum and the Death Penalty

Bill in DC sends us this.
Is Rick Santorum Rethinking Death Penalty Views reading the polls?
From the Death Penalty Information Center via CAPITAL DEFENSE WEEKLY.

NEW VOICES: U.S. Senator Santorum Rethinking Death Penalty Views

U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, an outspoken conservative Catholic from Pennsylvania, is re-examining his views on capital punishment. In response to the announcement by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops concerning their new Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty, Santorum said, "I felt very troubled about cases where someone may have been convicted wrongly. DNA evidence definitely should be used when possible. I agree with the pope that in the civilized world ... the application of the death penalty should be limited. I would definitely agree with that. I would certainly suggest there probably should be some further limits on what we use it for." This is a significant shift in opinion on the death penalty for Santorum, who voted against replacing capital punishment with life without parole in 1994 and helped to block a 1996 effort to make it easier for those on death row to appeal their convictions. He said, "I never thought about it that much when I was really a supporter of the death penalty. I still see it as potentially valuable, but I would be one to urge more caution than I would have in the past." Santorum's remarks came as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a Zogby International poll showing a dramatic decline in Catholic support for capital punishment.

And the poll:

PUBLIC OPINION: Zogby Poll Finds Dramatic Decline in Catholic Support For Death Penalty
A national poll of Roman Catholic adults conducted by Zogby International found that Catholic support for capital punishment has declined dramatically in recent years. The Zogby Poll was released on March 21, 2005 at a press conference of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as it announced a new Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty. The poll revealed that only 48% of Catholics now support the death penalty. Comparable polls by other organizations had resgistered a 68% support among Catholics in 2001. In addition, the percentage of Catholics who are strongly supportive of capital punishment has been halved, from a high of 40% to 20% in the most recent survey. The poll also found that:


Regular churchgoers are less likely to support the death penalty than those who attend infrequently.
Younger Catholics are among those least likely to support the death penalty.
A third of Catholics who once supported the use of the death penalty now oppose it.
Among the major reasons Catholics gave for their opposition to capital punishment was "respect for life," and 63% voiced concerns about what the use of the death penalty "does to us as a people and a country." Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington, was joined by John Zogby, President of Zogby International, Bud Welch, whose daughter was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, and Kirk Bloodsworth, who was freed from death row after DNA evidence led to his exoneration, at the press conference.