Chapter 3 - Report of the Research and Policy Development Group (a) Public Survey on Death Penalty During the year, the Commission was involved in a public survey, led by a team from Universiti Malaya, to gather public opinion on the death penalty in Malaysia. The survey involved 500 respondents comprising males and females of different ethnic, religious, socio-economic, educational and geographical backgrounds. Views were sought with respect to two issues – support for or opposition to the death penalty; and the types of offence for which the death penalty should be imposed. The respondents were presented with nine scenarios involving different offences, such as murder during a robbery, murder in a domestic setting, drug- or gang-related murders, drug trafficking, rape and murder, terrorism activities, possession of a firearm, kidnapping of children and violence against children. Every scenario included mitigating and aggravating factors. It was found that 97.6% of the respondents supported the death penalty in at least one scenario, suggesting that Malaysians are generally in favour of this form of punishment. Cases that received the strongest support were those involving more than one criminal act, repeat offenders, heinous crimes especially those against women and children, and terrorism. The majority of the respondents were of the view that the death penalty should not be imposed for drug-related offences, except in the case of murder. However, even in cases of loss of life, mitigating factors played an important part in the overall response. For instance, in a case where a repeat offender and a drug trafficker deliberately shot dead another drug dealer, 64.6% of the respondents voted for imposition of the death penalty; in another case, where a young man who had never committed any offence, shot dead a drug dealer, only 30.8% of the respondents felt that the death penalty should be imposed. The main justification given for the mandatory death penalty in these scenarios was the deterrent effect. It was seen as a means of instilling fear in those contemplating heinous offences, and as a way to enhance moral education among youth. The respondents were also asked to indicate the most appropriate alternative sentence if the mandatory death penalty were abolished. The findings (Figure 1) indicated that 53% supported natural life imprisonment, while 14.4% were in support of 30 years’ imprisonment and whipping. 85