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(B)
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6A)
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But equally it could be argued that it would be better to
continue to hold the supreme penalty in reserve until a case
arose in which there was absolutely no doubt that it must be
imposed. These considerations tend to cancel each other out.
(c) Mr Royle has suggested that we might ask for a psychiatric
report on Mr Tsoi. It appears to be true that there has so far
been no such examination. The papers submitted to Executive
Council included a report from the District Commissioner, New
Territories, from a probation officer and from the police. In a
previous case in 1971/72 of Chau Kam-cheung it appears that the
prisoner was examined by a psychiatric specialist. The only
comment on Mr Tsoi's mental state that we have received is in
the Governor's telegram No 422 which said that the prisoner was
not suffering from any degree of diminished responsibility. The
Governor did not explain this. But it is probable that he meant
responsibility in the legal sense and that the comment referred
to the dismissal by the court of the defences of provocation,
self-defence and drunkenness.
4. In considering a reprieve it is possible to take into account
rather wider questions of the prisoner's mental state. We must
assume that the Governor did so and that if he did not call for
a psychiatrist's report, it was because he did not consider it
necessary. Nevertheless the Legal Advisers consider that it
would be proper for the Secretary of State to ask for such a
psychiatric investigation, even at this stage. If it did
transpire that the prisoner was clinically though not necessarily legally of unsound mind then this might provide sufficient grounds
Mentally disturbed
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