A recent survey commissioned by Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry indicated 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.

The ministry said the 2023 survey found that 77.4 percent 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 percent in 2021.

Respondents who indicated strong agreement or agreement in the 2023 survey felt that the death penalty deterred serious crimes (41.5 percent), that these crimes were a significant threat to society (20.1 percent), that the death penalty helped to keep Singapore safe (13 percent), and that it was a fair punishment commensurate with the most serious crimes (12.8 percent).

Some 14.3 percent of respondents were neutral, with over half citing reasons related to a preference for discretionary sentencing, a preference for rehabilitation, and concerns over disproportionate punishment.

A small minority (8.3 percent) 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 percent).

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,” stated the survey report released today.

Murder, firearm offences, drug trafficking

An average of 89.4 percent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the death penalty deterred murder, firearm offences, and drug trafficking offences in the country.

About 83.6 percent 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 percent of respondents were confident that the Singapore criminal justice system was able to ensure accused persons in death penalty cases underwent fair and rigorous investigations and trials.

Some 84.3 percent also believed the Singapore criminal justice system had adequate safeguards in place to prevent wrongful executions.

- Bernama

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