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From: thompso@utecfc.UUCP (Mark Thompson)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: re: P.O.P.,Capital Punishment
Message-ID: <19@utecfc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Oct-84 13:07:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: utecfc.19
Posted: Mon Oct  8 13:07:00 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 8-Oct-84 18:41:53 EDT
Organization: Engineering Computing Facility, University of Toronto
Lines: 56


-Mark:
-    Concerning your recent statement in the capital punishment debate:
-
->It has been shown that polls have little effect on public opinion. They
->merely happen to report on what that opinion is at the time.
-
-    This is news to me. I had understood that studies of this subject
-usually report no evidence that reporting poll results influences
-the outcome of a subsequent vote. The American networks regularly use
-these results to quash criticism of their exit polling and election
-coverage. There is a big difference between "no evidence..." and "little
-effect...". Can you find me the study/studies that you refer to? Perhaps
-this is true for the issues of capital punishment and abortion, but I
-don't believe it for a second on most political questions. Remember
-the Joe Clark effect? Furthermore, I think this has rather far reaching
-implications to topics such as the pornography/censorship debate.
-
-        Doug



      Doug I agree with you! Perhaps instead of "little effect" I should have
said "teeny weeny wafer thin effect". However I am sure that you would agree
that there is the odd person out there who lets somebody else sway their
opinion.  Have you read Eugene Fiome's articles? However I am not advocating
any restriction on polling or reporting of such polls. Those who would let
themselves be swayed by polls are likely to be a insignificant minority. 

      Returning to the issue of capital punishment it is interesting to note
some of the points made by others in previous articles:

      - police killers all have a death wish

     ->Well we had another two policemen killed here in the east this weekend.
       The killers are apparently a couple of car thieves and don't seem to
       fit this category. Instead they are just a couple of murderous thugs.
       One of the suspects was killed in an ensuing shootout with police and
       the other suspect deserves no less. It is interesting to note here that
       criminals will fight it out to the death even without the prospect of
       capital punishment facing them.

      - the case of Donald Marshall (Donald Johnston - Wasn't he a Liberal
        cabinet minister?)

     ->Yes undoubtedly there are those who are convicted incorrectly but the
       number is very small. Much smaller than the number of convicted murderers
       who go on to kill again. However it is a valid point and one that does
       concern me. The Donald Marshall case is not the best example to use here
       because he was not totally innocent. The murder victim was his
       accomplice in a mugging attempt that went wrong. Harsh justice but
       Donald Marshall would never have encountered his problems had he been
       an honest citizen in the first place.

                                      Mark Thompson
                                      UTME