Death penalty favoured—poll

Press, 18 July 1987, Page 6

Death penalty favoured —poll

PA Wellington More than half the Aucklanders questioned in an opinion poll this week say the death penalty should be reintroduced. The A.G.B. McNair survey, commissioned by Television New Zealand, found that of the 333 Aucklanders questioned, 53 per cent approved of the death penalty as a punishment for some crimes, 39 per cent disapproved, 7 per cent were not sure and 1 per cent declined to answer. The survey was made by random telephone interviews of Aucklanders aged over 18. Of those who approved of the death penalty, more than 80 per cent felt premeditated murder, child molestation and sexual abuse leading to the death of a child

should be punishable by death. Thirty-eight per cent thought the penalty should apply to child molestation and sexual abuse without the death of a child. Rape should also incur the death penalty, according to 40 per cent of the group, and 29 per cent thought it should apply to treason.