Capital punishment and public opinionWhat does the public think of capital punishment in various countries around the world? This article will review the results of recent surveys and polls. In Guatemala, a poll on the death penalty conducted in Guatemala City, the capital, in June found that 74 percent of respondents supported the death penalty. 78.5% supported the execution of two men, sentenced to death for kidnapping, the previous week. However, only 20.5% believed that executions would have caused a drop in the crime rate. The survey was conducted by the Departamento de Mercado of Prensa Libre (Guatemalan newspaper). In Uzbekistan, on December 5 the results of a survey were published in the newspaper ''Vatanparvar''. The aim of the survey was to ascertain public attitudes towards punishment for terrorism. The meeting was conducted by the Ijtimoiy Fikr Center for Public Opinion Studies and took place shortly before the session of Parliament scheduled for December 14, which is expected to adopt a draft law on combating terrorism. The question posed to citizens was what type of punishment the law should provide for those citizens of a country who, with weapons in their hands, belonged to groups of extremist bandits and organized terrorists who wanted to overthrow the government and change existing social and political systems . . 57% believe the punishment should be death and 20% life imprisonment. It is reported that the survey was conducted in Tashkent and all regions and involved representatives of all segments of the population: residents of cities and villages, women and men, people of different ages and ethnic origins. In the United States, several .... .... middle of paper ...... the threat of the death penalty rarely deters criminals. In another survey conducted in September, the U.S. Department of Justice released the results of its review of the federal death penalty. The investigation highlighted marked racial and geographic disparities in the application of the death penalty at the federal level. About 80 percent of federal death row inmates were racial or ethnic minorities, and such minorities accounted for about three-quarters of cases in which federal prosecutors sought the death penalty. One example of geographic disparity is that just three federal judicial districts, in Virginia, Puerto Rico and Missouri, accounted for nearly a quarter of the 183 cases since 1995 in which prosecutors recommended that a death sentence be sought. Federal prosecutors in nearly half of America's 94 districts have never recommended the death penalty.