Study data derive from questionnaires on crime, crime control issues, and the death penalty completed by 1,149 respondents whose names were gathered from telephone books in Washington State. Results suggest that both police and people who support the death penalty are not guided by a sophisticated legal philosophy but rather by subjective opinions. Among police and citizens who support the death penalty, concern about crime and experience with criminal victimization are not strongly related to death penalty support. Both police and citizens who support the death penalty focus on the offender rather than the offense: certain types of people, particularly minorities, are regarded with hostility. Both police and supporters of the death penalty in the citizenry believe that persons arrested should receive the full rigor of the law with no favors and few rights. The similarities between police and certain citizen groups are related to practical, nonacademic knowledge levels, to orientation toward immediate reaction rather than careful deliberation, and to stereotyping and attribution of dangerous qualities to outgroups. In the author's view, the good-vs-evil moralistic stance underlying these attributes accounts for support of the death penalty. Tables and 28 references are supplied.