Civitas Institute polls show support for the death penalty.
The conservative think tank's polling from 2005 to present does not show the dramatic drop in support for capital punishment as surveys by the Elon University Poll over the same time period.
Some caveats: Civitas polls likely voters, while Elon polls all residents. Both use live operators, but Civitas questions are closed, while Elon's are open-ended.
Civitas also asks more narrowly worded questions. Although its death penalty questions do not seem to have the loaded language that some complain about in its other polls, Elon pollster Hunter Bacot warns that this is a tricky subject to ask about.
* July 2005: "Do you support or oppose the death penalty for violent crimes?" Support, 66 percent; oppose, 26 percent; not sure, seven percent.
* Feb. 2007:"Do you support or oppose the death penalty for certain types of violent crimes?" Support, 69 percent; oppose, 23 percent; not sure, eight percent.
* April 2008: "Do you support the death penalty in North Carolina?" Yes, 60 percent; no, 27 percent; not sure 12 percent.
The three questions are not exactly the same. The first two have more room for exceptions — "for violent crime" and "for certain types of violent crimes" — which may tilt respondents with mixed emotions.
That can make a big difference on a poll with closed questions, where respondents have to choose one of the options given.
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