WA Premier Richard Court backed away from calling a...

WA Premier Richard Court backed away from calling a referendum on the death penalty before the next State election and said it would not be an election issue. Opposition leader Geoff Gallop said Court was not serious about raising the issue of capital punishment. "If he wanted to bring capital punishment into the Parliament he could do it this afternoon and we could debate it," he said. Labor would oppose the introduction of the death penalty. The WA Law Society attacked capital punishment as did the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) and the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee. "The bottom line is that there is no statistical evidence to show that capital punishment reduces the number of wilful murders," Society president John Prior said. "That comes from studies in the United States and crime rates in Australia pre and post the death penalty." "I am hopeful the WA public will see the Premier's support for the reintroduction of death penalty the death penalty for what it truly is - an act of political desperation to improve his flailing popularity," ALS chief executive Dennis Eggington said. Human rights groups around Australia expressed shock and dismay at calls for a referendum on the death penalty in WA. Professor Alice Tay, president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission based in Sydney, said: "These calls are retrograde steps. Death penalty laws are morally wrong, legally unsafe and a contravention of the fundamental principles of the right to life." Theo Mackaay, of the Anglican Social Responsibility Commission of WA, said: "If the Premier says he supports the death penalty as a deterrent to violent crime, I would call on him to publish the research that shows it's effective." Prime Minister John Howard refused to buy into the capital punishment issue. Though known to be personally opposed to the death penalty, he also believes criminal law is a State matter. Attorney-General Daryl Williams indicated he was opposed to the death penalty. A spokeswoman said Australia had international obligations committing it to maintaining the abolition of capital punishment. WA Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot supported the death penalty. "I think there are murders that are so horrendous, so utterly and totally odious to people, that capital punishment is the only thing that can assuage that feeling of awfulness that people have about someone who takes an innocent life," he said. Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley accused Court of political desperation. "The moment a West Australian Tory faces a political death sentence, he wants to impose it on everyone else," he said. "This is not so much an argument about principle but a prediction about the next election."