More residents agree with death penalty for serious crimes

More Singapore residents agreed with the use of the death penalty for the most serious crimes like murder, trafficking large amounts of drugs, and firearm offences.

Over three-quarters of respondents, or 77.4 per cent, in the 2023 survey commissioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said they strongly agreed or agreed with this statement.

This was compared with 73.7 per cent of respondents in the same survey done in 2021.

They felt the death penalty deterred the most serious crimes, that such crimes were serious and posed a danger to society, and that the death penalty was commensurate with the crime, said MHA on Sept 19 when it released the 2023 survey findings.

It was done to better understand public perceptions on the death penalty, and was conducted by a survey company MHA appointed.

It involved conducting face-to-face interviews with about 2,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 15 and above between April and June 2023.

MHA said the surveys in both 2021 and 2023 used stratified random sampling based on age, race, sex and citizenship status to ensure the survey samples were representative of the national resident population.

To ensure the comparability of the results between both surveys, MHA said the questions asked in 2021 were retained and the phrasing of these questions generally remained the same in 2023.

The 2023 survey found statistically significant increases in the proportion of respondents who strongly agreed or agreed with the use of the mandatory death penalty.

For murder, 85 per cent of respondents in the 2023 survey strongly agreed or agreed the mandatory death penalty was an appropriate punishment.

This was a 4.5 percentage point increase from the 80.5 per cent in the 2021 survey.

For firearm offences, this figure was 74.3 per cent in the 2023 survey, compared to 71.1 per cent in 2021.

For trafficking a significant amount of drugs, this figure was 68.7 per cent in 2023, compared to 65.6 per cent in 2021.

Respondents who did not agree with imposing the mandatory death penalty for these three crimes were asked whether the discretionary death penalty, or life imprisonment, would be more appropriate.

In 2013, the law was changed to give judges the discretion to impose life terms and caning for drug couriers, instead of death, if specific conditions were met.

It would have to be shown, for instance, that the offender acted as a courier and had cooperated with the authorities to disrupt drug-trafficking activities.

According to figures from the Singapore Prison Service, there were five judicial executions in 2023 and 11 in 2022. All 16 were over drug-related offences.

One of the cases in 2023 involved Singaporean Saridewi Djamani, 45, the first woman to be executed in almost 20 years. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for possessing about 30g of heroin for trafficking.

MHA said a large majority of respondents in the 2023 survey agreed that some form of the death penalty – whether mandatory or discretionary – was appropriate as the punishment for the three most serious crimes.

It added the proportion of these respondents were comparable to the 2021 survey.

Respondents who preferred the discretionary death penalty over life imprisonment said they believed law enforcement authorities or judges were in a better position to decide on the appropriate sentence.

MHA said a close examination of these responses found that while these respondents were open to the death penalty, they trusted the authorities or judges to assess whether the offender deserved it.

Those who preferred the discretionary death penalty also said circumstantial factors needed to be considered during sentencing, which should be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Those who wanted life imprisonment preferred rehabilitating offenders and giving them a second chance.

In the 2023 survey, more respondents agreed the death penalty was an effective deterrent against the most serious crimes.

For drug trafficking, 87.9 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement, compared to 83.2 per cent in the 2021 survey.

When asked if the death penalty was a more effective deterrent compared to life imprisonment, 79.9 per cent of respondents agreed in 2023, a six percentage point rise from 73.7 per cent in 2021.

Three new questions were asked in 2023 survey.

They were: whether respondents preferred to retain the mandatory death penalty in Singapore; whether the replacement of the mandatory death penalty with the discretionary death penalty would result in an increase in serious crimes here; and whether the mandatory death penalty was a strong deterrent against the most serious crimes in Singapore.

MHA said most respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the three statements.

The ministry added there was a statistically significant increase in the proportion of respondents who strongly agreed or agreed that the mandatory death penalty was a greater deterrent than the discretionary death penalty for the most serious crimes.

For firearm offences, 85.8 per cent of respondents felt this way in the 2023 survey, compared to 77.9 per cent of respondents in 2021.

Similar to 2021, the majority of respondents in the 2023 survey had confidence that Singapore’s criminal justice system would handle death penalty cases appropriately.

Close to 90 per cent of respondents believed accused persons in death penalty cases are subject to fair and rigorous investigations and trials.

Nearly 85 per cent of respondents believed there are adequate safeguards to ensure that there are no wrongful executions.