Public Opinion
In the Fall of 2001, shortly before the Serbian abolition, a study of attitudes to the death penalty, based on a poll of 926 citizens, found the respondents to be equally divided: 43% were for the death penalty and 43% were against it, with 14% undecided. Subsequent polls, taken every year since 2007 on a representative sample of around 1,000 citizens, confirm this result. Those for and those against capital punishment remain equally divided with minor year-to-year variations, like a seesaw: one year a majority of a few per cent would be for, and the next against the death penalty (see Table below).
| Year | Against death penalty (%) | For death penalty (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 50 | 50 |
| 2007 | 56 | 44 |
| 2008 | 48 | 52 |
| 2009 | 52 | 48 |
| 2010 | 47 | 53 |
| 2011 | 53 | 47 |
| 2012 | 49 | 51 |
Opinion polls, Serbia, 2002, 2007–2012 (“undecided” excluded)
When the results in the above table are merged, it appears that a majority of one per cent is against the death penalty.
Read more about this topic: Capital Punishment In Serbia
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“Englishmen never will be slaves: they are free to do whatever the Government and public opinion allow them to do.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)