The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2021 death penalty were initially unpopular with the public according to reports.86 The campaign for Erdene-Ochir, a Mongolian who was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1995, was, however, significant. His death sentence was upheld three times by three different courts before he was eventually found innocent and released in 2002. Public opinion allegedly shifted significantly over the seven years it took for the courts to overturn Erdene-Ochir’s conviction – from support for his death sentence to the opposite by the end. Support for the death penalty has waned further since.87 A survey conducted in 2011 by a research branch of the Mongolian government in collaboration with a CSO, showed a majority of Mongolians thought the death penalty should be abolished as it is “irrevocable to execute innocent people.”88 At the same time, some have argued that public opinion in Mongolia prior to abolition overwhelmingly supported the death penalty, and continued to even after abolition.89 This demonstrates once again the challenges in understanding how the public feels about the application of the death penalty. In Latvia, too, public opinions on abolition of the death penalty have been hard to ascertain and still were after ratification of Protocol no. 13 in 2012. A January 2016 survey found that 47 per cent of respondents were against reinstating capital punishment, as opposed to 37 per cent in favour. The results were not divided by age group, but it is likely that support for abolition was higher among the generation that grew up without executions, as in other abolitionist countries.90 On 3 October 1996, after the President had announced an executive moratorium on executions, he also noted that if the public did not support abolition this would have to be taken into consideration and suggested that the issue should be discussed publicly.91 Others stated that the moratorium on the death penalty should be accompanied by thorough sociological research to explore the pros and cons for all sections of society.92 86 Tjalling H.F. Halbertsma, Abolition of the Death Penalty in Mongolia: Is “Normative Power Europe” at Work?, Mongolian Journal of International Affairs, 21, 50–63. 87 Amarzaya Galsanlkhagva, op. cit., note 27. 88 Ibid. 89 Tjalling H.F. Halbertsma, op.cit., note 86. 90 Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Latvia. 91 Latvijas Vestnesis, Par nāvessoda moratoriju Latvijā, 8 October 1996; and Latvian Centre for Human Rights, Integration monitor. 92 Ibid. 26