More than a third of New Zealander’s would support the reintroduction of the death penalty.
In a Curia poll for TV3’s “ The Nation” of 624 respondents, 38 per cent were in favour of the death penalty, 55 per cent were against it, and 7 per cent were undecided.
35 per cent of Labour voters favoured the death penalty and National voters polled at 44 per cent. Least likely to be in favour were Green Party voters at 19 per cent, but the most in favour of capital punishment were New Zealand First voters at 84 per cent.
Despite an overwhelming majority of his party’s supporters favouring the reintroduction of the death penalty, New Zealand First MP Denis O’Rourke does not believe it should.
"The death penalty is right in principal but wrong in practice,” he said.
Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesperson Ruth Money said their clients who have suffered through losing a loved one to homicide do not believe capital punishment is appropriate either.
“Survivors that we deal with have not heard one of them say they believe in capital punishment.
“They believe in the public being safe but they don’t believe its their choice to take someone’s life,” she said.
NBR staff
Sun, 18 Aug 2013
Sun, 18 Aug 2013
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