THE ROLE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN COURT DECISIONS ON THE LEGALITY OF THE DEATH PENALTY: A REFLECTION ON THE SUPREME COURT DECISION ON THE DEATH PENALTY AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN POSITION

Abstract

There are various schools of thought on the role of public
opinion in court decisions especially on the death penalty. A person's
view of the role of public opinion will be profoundly affected by whether
the public he or she is thinking of is the totality of the electorate, those
paying attention to the issue or some other group. Some categorically
disapprove of any effective role of public opinion. While some argue that
it should play a role in court decisions on the death penalty, others say
that there is a role, but not a determinative one reasoning that judicial
ethics and rules do not allow consulting the masses, but courts do not
decide the law in the vacuum and so society influences are inevitable.
Other schools of thought suggest that there is a role, but are not sure
what it is and the rest think that public opinion should have no role at all
in court decisions on the legality of the death penalty. The rest offer a
critique without choosing sides. This enhances the debate and it can be
discerned from the above views that determining the role of public
opinion in court decisions is no easy task. It is even harder when dealing
with death penalty cases because they affect the right to life. What
emerges as the strongest school of thought is that public opinion has no
effective role to play in court decisions as it takes into consideration the
reality of public opinion while at the same time promoting judicial ethics.