Fanning was the lone Republican candidate to oppose the death penalty.

“I don’t believe the federal or state government should be allowed to take the life of anyone at either end of the actuarial bell curve or any one of its prisoners,” Fanning said. “Citizens do have the right to use lethal force.”

Margolis argued that Montana should repeal the death penalty, as some have tried but failed to do in the Legislature, quoting the Montana Abolition Coalition as saying, “We cannot release an innocent person from the grave.”

She added, “Our justice system makes mistakes, and our resources are too thin. We have to be a better society than turning to killing people in order to protect ourselves.”

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Gay marriage or civil unions

The nine candidates were asked whether they favored changing Montana’s constitution to allow gay couples and lesbian couples to marry.

Miller opposed such a change, noting that 67 percent of Montanans voted in 2004 to say that “only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.”