When the Badger Poll asked state residents last spring whether they favored reinstating the death penalty, 56% said “yes.” When an advisory referendum posed the same question on Tuesday, 56% of state voters replied “yes.”
The Badger Poll went on to ask an important second question: Is the death penalty or life imprisonment with no possibility of parole a better punishment for murder? About 50% chose life imprisonment and 45% chose the death penalty.
Notably, the referendum did not ask that follow-up question.