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Unveiling Singapore’s Death Penalty Discourse: A Critical Analysis of Public Opinion and Deterrent Claims

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While Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) maintains a firm stance on the effectiveness of the death penalty in managing drug trafficking in Singapore, the article presents evidence suggesting that the methodologies and interpretations of these studies might not be as substantial as portrayed.

At sentencing, some murder victims “matter” more than others

A de­fend­ant is much more likely to get a death sen­tence if he or she kills a “high-sta­tus” vic­tim than if not, a study claims. The find­ing is based on a sur­vey of 504 death pen­al­ty cases in Tex­as, the state with the high­est rate of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the Un­ited States.

“In the cap­i­tal of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, death is more apt to be sought and im­posed on be­half of high-sta­tus vic­tims. Some vic­tims mat­ter more than oth­ers,” said Uni­vers­ity of Den­ver so­ci­ol­o­gist and crim­i­nol­o­gist Scott Phil­lips, au­thor of the stu­dy.

The work ap­pears in the re­search jour­nal Law and So­ci­e­ty Re­view.

Phil­lips, who an­a­lyzed death pen­al­ty cases from 1992 to 1999, found that a death sen­tence is most likely if a de­fend­ant kills a mar­ried, white or His­pan­ic vic­tim with a clean crim­i­nal rec­ord and a col­lege de­gree, as op­posed to a sin­gle, black or Asian vic­tim with a crim­i­nal rec­ord and no col­lege de­gree.

The study is based on cases in Har­ris Coun­ty, which is the state’s most pop­u­lous coun­ty and al­so en­com­passes its larg­est city, Hous­ton.

While re­cent de­bates over the death pen­al­ty have tended to fo­cus on the prob­lem of con­vict­ing the in­no­cent and on costs, Phil­lips said ar­bi­trar­i­ness has long been a con­cern.

Draw­ing on the same da­ta, Phil­lips’ pre­vi­ous re­search found that black de­fend­ants were more likely to be sen­tenced to death than white de­fend­ants. The ra­cial dis­par­i­ties de­scribed in the pri­or pa­per be­come even sharp­er af­ter ac­count­ing for vic­tim so­cial sta­tus – black de­fend­ants were more apt to be sen­tenced to death de­spite be­ing less apt to kill high sta­tus vic­tims, Phil­lips said.

Source: WorldScience, March 8, 2010

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