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U.S., Britain and Canada Endorse Death Penalty
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in the United States, Britain and Canada support relying on the death penalty for homicide convictions, according to a poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. 84 per cent of respondents in the U.S., 67 per cent in Britain, and 62 per cent in Canada share this view.
Since 1976, 1,193 people have been put to death in the United States, including five this year. More than a third of all executions have taken place in the state of Texas. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia do not engage in capital punishment.
Britain began a five-year moratorium on all death penalties from criminal convictions in 1965, and made the suspension permanent in 1969. Execution for any of five military offences—including "Serious Misconduct in Action" and "Obstructing Operations or Giving False Air Signals"—was repealed in 1998, though the last instance of its invocation occurred in 1942.
The last execution in Canada took place in 1962, and the country abolished the death penalty altogether in 1976.
Michael Victor Lane, a British motivational speaker, is facing prosecution in the U.S. for the alleged murder of a woman and the alleged attempted murder of a transsexual in Las Vegas. On Jan. 14, Robert Daskas, deputy Clark County district attorney, said that Lane’s situation "could potentially be a death penalty case." Prosecutors have one month to decide whether they will pursue a death sentence for Lane.
Polling Data
Would you support punishing each of the following crimes with the death penalty? - Homicide (murder)
|
|
CAN |
USA |
BRI |
|
Yes |
62% |
84% |
67% |
|
No |
29% |
14% |
23% |
|
Not sure |
10% |
3% |
10% |
Source: Angus Reid Public Opinion
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,001 Canadian adults, 1,004 American adults, and 1,049 British adults, conducted from Aug. 13 to Aug. 16, 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
