A proposal to institute the death penalty in Mexico's...

A proposal to institute the death penalty in Mexico's largest state was overwhelmingly approved by voters during a nonbinding referendum, but voter turnout was not as high as organizers had hoped.
Traditionally, this country has opposed capital punishment and it is unconstitutional in Mexico state, where the vote was held. Still, the referendum invited the state's 8 million voters to say whether they would like to see kidnappers, armed robbers, first-degree murderers and child abductors put to death. It also asked whether life sentences should be imposed on rapists and on corrupt police officers and judges.
Despite claims by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and the Green Party, who sponsored the vote, that than two million people had voted, just over 800,000 votes were cast in all Mexico state, which loops around the west, north and east of Mexico City.
Isidro Pastor, head of the PRI's Mexico state branch, said final returns showed that 85.4 percent of voters thought capital punishment would slow skyrocketing crime and kidnapping rates that have plagued Mexico state and the rest of the country. Just 14.6 percent of voters said they didn't want the death penalty. Some 95.2 percent of voters supported life sentences for corrupt public officials and rapists, Pastor said.
The PRI controlled Mexico's presidency for 71 straight years before losing to President Vicente Fox in 2000. The party has maintained that despite the referendum, it doesn't support the death penalty.
``This is a social question, a question of how safe our society feels,'' Pastor said, adding that the vote is part of the parties' broader plan to overhaul the state's justice system. Lizeth Vega, a 29-year-old surgeon in the state capital of Toluca, said she voted in favor of the referendum.
``It would be good to really stop the rapists and murders we have here,'' she said. ``Something has to be done.'' The proposal has provoked an outcry among human rights groups and rival political parties. ``These parties are urging the public to be violent,'' said Francisco Robels Gonzalez, a 38-year-old industrial engineer who voted against capital punishment. ``They are doing this for attention, nothing more.''
Opponents say the death penalty won't make any difference because police almost never catch those committing crimes. In 2001, just under 14 percent of reported crimes were prosecuted nationwide. In Mexico state, just 7 percent of suspects were tried.
While the death penalty is permitted for some federal crimes, it hasn't been implemented for decades. The Supreme Court has ruled that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.