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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