Global Issues
To Execute or Not, an Unfair Question
New polls in the Czech Republic showing high and growing support for the death penalty have sparked debate on the continuing use of surveys to back the retention of capital punishment.
The polls, published over the last two weeks, showed that almost two-thirds of Czechs supported reinstating the death penalty.
But sociologists and anti-death penalty groups say polls are not necessarily an accurate reflection of true public feeling towards capital punishment.
'The catch is in what people are being asked and what people are really expressing when they answer,' Czech sociologist Jan Hartl told IPS.
The death penalty was abolished in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1990 following the fall of communism. When the country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, capital punishment remained abolished in both states’ new constitutions.
Polls over the last 20 years in the Czech Republic have shown a persistently high level of support for the death penalty, running at above 50 percent. The latest poll, by the SANEP agency, showed a 65 percent level of support for capital punishment while another poll by the CVVM agency showed support at 62 percent - up from 57 percent in a similar poll in 2007.
Hartl said the level of support was unsurprising. 'The level of support has been relatively constant for many years. It is a reflection of people generally thinking that criminals are getting off too lightly, that justice is not being served, and law and order is not functioning well in society.'
In the SANEP poll, 81 percent said they considered current criminal punishments too weak and that for the most serious crimes such as murder and crimes against children, only the death penalty was sufficient punishment.
News headlines in the Czech Republic have recently been dominated by the disappearance of a nine-year-old schoolgirl, amid fears that she may have been taken by a paedophile ring.
Experts say that opinion polls on the death penalty can often be affected by recent events, and public opinion is as much an emotional response to perceived crimes as a real belief in capital punishment as an institution.
Richard Dieter, head of the Death Penalty Information Centre (DPIC) in Washington, told IPS: 'When asked about capital punishment at a time when there is a certain issue in the news or a terrible murder or terrorist attack for instance, people can give an emotional response to the question. There can be an outpouring of support among people for the death penalty after terrible crimes, yet months later those same people can give their votes to politicians who are against the death penalty.'
The Czech surveys also revealed a trend which ran against most opinion among developed nations - that people did not see it as inhumane. In the SANEP poll more than 60 percent said capital punishment was not inhumane.
Hartl said Czechs’ views on the death penalty were linked to the fact that there had never been any public debate on the death penalty, and that people were often unaware how it is carried out.
'This level of support would probably be the same in other central and Eastern European countries. Compared to the West there has never been any real public debate about this issue. After communism it was just accepted that our international obligations meant that we had to abolish the death penalty and that this was consistent with the norms of a civilised western country.
'If the death penalty was actually brought back and people were aware of its implementation, public opinion about it would most likely be much more diverse. It is like when you ask someone about an opinion on the death penalty, and on having guns and weapons - there is a big difference with a lack of support for the latter because it is something which is actual and could affect society.'
Anti-death penalty campaigners say that such debate is crucial, even in states which do not have death penalties.
Chiara Sangiorgio, an expert on the death penalty with Amnesty International, told IPS: 'Politicians, even in countries where the death penalty has already been abolished from constitutions, should make efforts to educate the public about capital punishment. The death penalty is a violation of human rights and discussing it and putting it into the context of humane criminal punishments and international rights can help to promote this view and human rights in general.'
Campaigners against the death penalty say that when presenting alternatives, polls on the death penalty produce starkly different results.
A study released in the US this month commissioned by the DPIC showed that six in ten U.S. citizens would support replacing the death penalty with life in prison. In another poll in October, 64 percent said they would support the death penalty for murder. But when offered a choice between penalties for murder, 49 percent backed capital punishment while 46 percent supported life in prison with no chance of parole.
Dieter told IPS: 'If you ask the U.S. public, or the public in other countries, about the death penalty, they do not find it objectionable in theory. But if you ask in conjunction with alternatives, such as the possibility of sentences of life without parole, then the answer is going to be different. People realise the problems of the death penalty, such as miscarriages of justice, the cost etc. There is a big difference between support for the death penalty in theory and the reality of it.'
Human rights groups say that because of such factors, opinion polls cannot be used as a justification for retaining the death penalty.
Fifty-eight nations retain the death penalty, and some states cite public support as a justification. In Russia, where there has been a moratorium on the death penalty for 14 years, lawmakers have been reluctant to enshrine a full abolition into the constitution because, they say, opinion polls show widespread public support.
In Belarus, the only country in Europe which still carries out death sentences, authorities claim 80 percent of the population back it in opinion polls. Experts point out, though, that the public has never been made aware of how people are executed - information they say would sway public opinion - and that the last poll had been carried out in 1996.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service