As the death penalty becomes less common, life imprisonment becomes more so

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

54% : After the fall of communism many eastern European countries replaced capital punishment with life sentences.
44% : Since 1976 more than 70 countries have abolished the death penalty.
44% : Malawi may become a model for countries seeking to avoid simply replacing capital punishment with life sentences.
43% : It directed judges to consider the circumstances of each to determine whether the death penalty should be upheld, converted to life or to a shorter sentence.
42% : Colorado replaced the death penalty last year with mandatory life sentences without parole.
42% : In places that retain the death penalty, the possibility of life in prison can reduce its use.
42% : After its High Court struck down the death penalty as mandatory for murder in 2007, the top appeal court ordered that more than 150 condemned prisoners be resentenced.
39% : A bigger problem for reformers is that many have argued that life without parole is a merciful alternative to the death penalty.
39% : Michael Radelet of the University of Colorado Boulder, who is a prominent opponent of capital punishment, says that he is "no fan of life without parole, but the alternative to killing people is not killing them, so it's a step in the right direction.
38% : Opponents of life without parole hope to repeat the success of campaigners against capital punishment.

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