SINGAPORE (Bernama): A recent survey commissioned by Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry (MHA) indicates growing support among residents for the death penalty in cases involving "the most serious crimes” such as murder and trafficking a significant amount of drugs.
MHA said the 2023 survey found that 77.4 per cent of the approximately 2,000 respondents aged 15 and above strongly agreed or agreed that the death penalty should be applied to the most serious crimes, up from 73.7 per cent in 2021.
Respondents who indicated strong agreement or agreement in the 2023 survey felt that the death penalty deterred serious crimes (41.5 per cent), that these crimes were a significant threat to society (20.1 per cent), that the death penalty helped to keep Singapore safe (13 per cent), and that it was a fair punishment that commensurate with the most serious crimes (12.8 per cent).
Some 14.3 per cent of respondents were neutral, with more than half citing reasons related to a preference for discretionary sentencing, a preference for rehabilitation, and concerns over disproportionate punishment.
A small minority (8.3 per cent) disagreed or strongly disagreed with the use of the death penalty for the most serious crimes, with most of them citing a reason for offenders to be given a second chance (29.9 per cent).
Under Singapore’s laws, the death penalty is mandatory for a subset of the "most serious crimes”, such as trafficking a significant amount of drugs, discharging or attempting to discharge a firearm with the intent to cause physical injury (firearm offences), and intentional murder.
In the 2023 survey, the vast majority of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the mandatory death penalty was appropriate as punishment for these offences, with intentional murder being the offence that received the highest level of agreement.
"The proportions of respondents who strongly agreed or agreed that the mandatory death penalty was an appropriate punishment for these offences were higher than in the 2021 survey, and the increases were statistically significant,” the survey report released on Thursday stated.
Meanwhile, an average of 89.4 per cent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the death penalty deterred murder, firearm offences, and drug trafficking offences in the country.
An average of 83.6 per cent also strongly agreed or agreed that removing the death penalty would likely increase the number of murders, firearm offences, or the amount of drugs trafficked into Singapore.
In addition, 88.7 per cent of the respondents were confident that the Singapore criminal justice system was able to ensure that accused persons in death penalty cases underwent fair and rigorous investigations and trials.
Some 84.3 per cent also believed that the Singapore criminal justice system had adequate safeguards in place to prevent wrongful executions. - Bernama
