Is there a point in bringing back the death penalty if we have low conviction rates?
The debate around the death penalty has resurfaced as some political parties call for it to be reinstated.
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Africa Melane spoke to Head of Strategic Communications at the Institute for Race Relations, Hermann Pretorius. Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below.
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, was abolished in South Africa on 6 June 1995.
Bringing back the death penalty is a topic that has been debated for years as the country's crime rate continues to increase.
But the question is, will bringing back capital punishment deter people from committing crimes?
Pretorius says the honest answer is that we just don't know.
"One of the problems with the question of deterrence and capital punishment is it is almost impossible to track the data in terms of who would have committed a serious crime like murder or rape and who was actually deterred by the possibility of the death penalty."
- Hermann Pretorius, Head of Strategic Communications - Institute for Race Relations
He adds that there seems to be very little evidence to indicate that there is any clear correlation between the death penalty being in place and acting as a deterrent.
Pretorius notes that at the highest level of estimating, below 3% of murders, rapes or serious crimes actually lead to a conviction.
He questions that if we already have such low conviction rates, what difference would re-introducing the death penalty make when it comes to the crime situation in the country?
"We have a very low conviction rate in the first place, so if we are going to have the death penalty as a deterrent, the conviction rate is perhaps the first stop to look at and to see if we can't even get people convicted, never mind sentenced, is it really a deterrent especially given the fact that our forensics cases backlog is enormous - with reported as recently as 2023 - placing it at more than 300 000 outstanding cases in South Africa."
- Hermann Pretorius, Head of Strategic Communications - Institute for Race Relations
"Before we even get to that risk of 'I shouldn't do this, I might get sentenced to death', it's a question about will this person get caught, convicted, will the police investigation be sufficient, will the prosecutorial process be sufficient and do we have the skilled judiciary to make sure that these cases are heard fairly and consistently."
- Hermann Pretorius, Head of Strategic Communications - Institute for Race Relations
Scroll up to listen to the full interview.