A recent pub­lic opin­ion poll of Australians found that 69% of respon­dents believe the penal­ty for mur­der should be impris­on­ment, while only 25% of those polled stat­ed it should be the death penal­ty. The poll, con­duct­ed by Roy Morgan International just one week after an Australian cit­i­zen was exe­cut­ed by Singapore for pos­sess­ing less than a half a kilo­gram of hero­in, revealed that pub­lic sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is con­tin­u­ing to decline in Australia. In November 2005, the same poll found that 66% of respon­dents favored impris­on­ment and 27% favored the death penal­ty. Australia car­ried out its last exe­cu­tion in 1967 and abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1985. 

(Roy Morgan International, December 24, 2005). See International and Public Opinion.

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