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UK support for death penalty drops below 50%

By staff writers
March 27, 2015

Public support for the death penalty in Britain has dropped to less than half the UK population for the first time, according to a new survey.

The latest British Social Attitudes survey, released yesterday (26 March), shows a majority of people in the UK – 52 per cent – now oppose the death penalty. Three decades ago, the same survey found that 75 per cent of the population supported capital punishment; a figure that has now fallen to 48 per cent.

The NatCen British Social Attitudes survey has been carried out every year since 1983, with questions repeated periodically to assess how opinions change over time. For this year's report, NatCen interviewed a representative, random sample of 2,878 adults in the UK between August and November 2014.

Commenting, Clare Algar, Executive Director of the legal charity Reprieve, which supports people facing the death penalty, said: “This welcome finding finally debunks the myth that, given half the chance, the British people would vote to bring back hanging. In fact the trend is clear – Brits in increasing numbers agree that the death penalty has no place in a civilised society. Capital punishment has little to do with justice or crime deterrence, and all countries – including the UK – should be working towards global abolition.”

The last executions in the UK took place in 1964 and in the following year, MPs voted 200 to 98 to suspend the death penalty for murder. At the time, opinion polls suggested a large majority of the electorate were opposed to the decision.

The death penalty was legally abolished under the Human Rights Act in 1998

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