The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2021 A survey carried out a year later, in 1997, as part of research on public opinion on the death penalty in the Baltics more broadly showed that at the time, 85 per cent of respondents in Latvia opposed abolition.93 Those who supported capital punishment argued that abolition would inevitably lead to a rapid increase in serious crime.94 Before Latvia’s ratification of Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR in 2012,95 public opinion remained divided, and calls for cancelling the moratorium on the death penalty emerged, for instance in 2008 following the murder of a young girl. At the time, a government official announced on national TV that he would support a Latvian referendum on reinstating the death penalty.96 However, such movements were reportedly short-lived.97 While polls indicated public support for the death penalty, it did not seem to be perceived as a “key issue” in the general public, and discussions in favour of abolition tended to circulate within legal and political circles.98 It has also been noted that there were, at the time, no human rights groups who were working on raising public awareness about abolition.99 Observers note that there was little public debate at the time of abolition in 2012, and the strong support for the death penalty among the population eventually had little impact on the process. In Virginia, much effort was put into raising public awareness of the issues surrounding the death penalty by national organizations, victims’ family members and religious groups to demonstrate to the public that there were available and viable alternatives to the death penalty.100 Observers noted that thanks to these efforts the public became more aware that capital punishment did not guarantee public safety and was also expensive.101 93 Latvian Centre for Human Rights, Press Report, 22 July 1997. 94 Andris Runcis, Latvia Towards Europe: International Security Issues, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Riga 1999. 95 Latvia introduced a moratorium on executions in 1996, abolished the death penalty in peacetime by ratification of ECHR Protocol no. 6 in 1998 and signed ECHR Protocol no. 13 on 3 May 2002 but did not ratify it until January 2012. 96 Philippa Runner, Latvian death penalty debate rumbles on, EU Observer, 25 September 2008. 97 Cornell Center, op. cit., note 90. 98 Ibid. 99 Ibid. 100 Interview with Mark Warren, op. cit., note 46. 101 Interview with Joseph T. Flood, op. cit., note 15. 27