The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area 15 The Constitutional Court based its judgement of 11 March 2004 not only on the contents of Article 24 of the Constitution, but it also took into account the dynamics of Belarusian criminality, which show no indication of any significant decrease of the murder rate, and primarily of murders committed with aggravating circumstances. For example, the number of registered murders and attempted murders in 2002 was 23.7 per cent higher than in 1994, when 952 murders and attempted murders were registered, although no correlation could be traced between the application of the death penalty and the murder rate, nor was there any trace of the role of the death penalty as a deterrent. Neither practice nor scholarly research has proved a link between the number of murders committed and the degree to which the death penalty is used, nor could they determine its effect as a deterrent. This has also been confirmed in other states, which used it as a serious argument in favour of abolishing the death penalty. On the contrary, the number of murders committed with aggravating circumstances – which are grounds under law for the possibility of applying the death penalty – increased in years when the punishment was used on a significant number of occasions. In 1994-1998, the number of those sentenced to death increased (25, 37, 29, 46, and 47, respectively), while the number of those convicted of murder with aggravating circumstances also increased (278, 345, 411, 480, and 517, respectively). However, although only four people were sentenced to death in 2002, in 2003 the number of murders and attempted murders registered in Belarus dropped by 104 from the previous year. A significant drop – of 69 cases – was also registered in 2004. Unfortunately, in 2005 this rapid decline did not continue; rather, there was a slight increase, from 1,010 in 2004 to 1,032 murders and attempted murders in 2005. As noted above, the number of death sentences handed down in these years was very low. The higher number of murders in 2005 against 2004 – 22 more cases – did not affect the trend in judicial practice regarding use of the death penalty. The Constitutional Court also took into account that Belarus has not yet ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and that Belarus is not a full member of the Council of Europe, and thus has not signed or ratified the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Protocols thereto. These circumstances exempt Belarus from any obligations to adhere to the path of those states that make up the Council of Europe. Public opinion also should not be ignored. Both the 1996 referendum and subsequent sociological studies show that more than 70 per cent of citizens still retain hope that the death penalty has a preventive effect. The conclusions of various government