Middle Tennesseans strongly support the death penalty but seriously doubt the state's ability to administer it justly, a recent poll shows.

The poll, conducted in February and March by students at Middle Tennessee State University, found that 67 percent of Middle Tennesseans favor executing people convicted of murder. Nationally, only about 52 percent of adults favor executing convicted murderers, according to a recent Gallup poll.

However, 47 percent of Middle Tennesseans - nearly a majority - would like to suspend the death penalty in light of revelations that several death row inmates in other states were actually innocent. Forty-four percent would like to continue executions anyway, and 10 percent are undecided.

Only about a quarter of Middle Tennesseans think it's not at all likely that the state would execute an innocent person. Just over half consider the scenario somewhat likely, and another fifth think it's very likely.

"Among Middle Tennesseans, support for the death penalty is more broad than deep," Ken Blake, operations director for the poll, said. "Area residents find the principle of executing murderers appealing, but they're a little jittery about the judicial system's ability to accurately decide who is and is not a murderer."

Blake said the results may reflect misgivings about the guilt of death row inmate Philip Workman. Workman, accused of shooting a police officer to death during an attempted robbery, recently won a stay of execution so that new evidence calling his conviction into question could be examined.

If Workman's conviction stands, he likely will become the second prisoner put to death in Tennessee since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 abolished all death penalty statutes and sent states scrambling to write new ones. The first, convicted child killer Robert Glen Coe, was executed last week by lethal injection.

The poll found that men who describe themselves as "born again" Christians are among the staunchest supporters of capital punishment in Middle Tennessee. Fully 87 percent of "born again" men favor capital punishment compared to 72 percent of other men.

Rev. Billy Sage of Knotting Hill Community Church in Murfreesboro said he supports the death penalty and advises his congregation to do the same.

"God is merciful, yes, but his mercy does not always excuse us from the consequences of our actions," he said. "I certainly hope these inmates find forgiveness in God's eyes for what they have done, but I think we have a duty to uphold justice. Think of the victims."

But not all Christians agree, according to Father Claude Skinner of St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Nashville.

"Every human being is a work in progress, even the human beings on death row," he said. "Where do we get the audacity to tell God that his work on a person's soul is over?"

"We have a duty to lock murderers away so they can't harm us or our children. But the idea of snuffing out a God-given life in what amounts to bald-faced vengeance makes me tremble. It should make us all tremble."

The poll, sponsored by Middle Tennessee State University's College of Mass Communication, School of Journalism, and John Seigenthaler Chair of First Amendment Studies, was conducted by telephone Feb. 27 through March 17. Based on telephone interviews with 486 randomly selected Middle Tennessee residents age 18 or older, the poll has an estimated error margin of plus-or-minus 4.5 percentage points at the 95 percent level of confidence.