Pundits, public wrangle with death penalty

Their words appear to have a great impact on the public's support for capital punishment and it has become a convenient way for death penalty supporters here to garner support by simply asking "Would anyone agree that Chen Chin-hsing did not deserve to be executed?"

"The death penalty is not a way to compensate the victims and their relatives. The compensation for the victims is one thing and the punishment of the perpetrators is another.

"There are no grounds for the state to carry out tit-for-tat vengeance on behalf of the victims," said Nigel Li (李念祖), a law professor at Shih Hsin University, who once applied for a constitutional review to challenge the death penalty.

Although numerous polls have found that public support for the death penalty remains high in Taiwan -- regularly between 70 to 80 percent -- they do not necessarily tell the whole story of public opinion.

Dando Shigemitsu, a former justice of Japan's Supreme Court and a law scholar, argued in his book Abolishing the Death Penalty that while governments often cite public backing as a reason for keeping the death penalty, the way questions are presented can actually determine the outcome of the polls.

As Dando discovered, information made available to respondents, such as the probability of a miscarriage of justice as well as alternative punishments, can make a real difference in polling numbers.

In the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission's study, although 71 percent of respondents disagreed with abolishing the death penalty, given the alternative of life in prison without parole, 51 percent said they would support abolition.

In fact, abolition of the death penalty is seldom the result of public opinion. Britain, France and Canada have all ended capital punishment despite public opposition.

"When the public is not equipped with sufficient information on the drawbacks of the death penalty ... it's risky for them to make a decision on the issue," said Kenneth Chiu (邱晃權), an attorney and member of the president's human rights advisory group.

"Public opinion is highly valued in democracies, but I don't think every policy can be decided by a majority vote," Chiu said.

The second part of this article will run next Sunday.