Abstract/Summary

This report examines Zimbabwean citizens’ attitudes towards the death penalty by analysing a nationally representative opinion survey carried out in 2017. It examines what it means to be a ‘retentionist’ or an ‘abolitionist’ in a country that has not executed anyone since 2005. It also assesses the public’s response to Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution, which further restricted the application of the death penalty. Survey results indicate that public opinion does not pose a barrier to Zimbabwe’s progress from de facto to de jure abolition.