In order to justify a change (immediately in the
Hong Kong case) in the present practice regarding the
exercise of the Prerogative of Mercy, a public
announcement of HMG's intention to bring about the
abolition of the death penalty in all dependent
territories would be necessary.
Such an announcement
would however have to be made in the knowledge of
likely opposition to such a measure by Colonial
legislatures and of the difficulty of legislating in
the UK against local opinion in the territories.
An
announcement merely of intention to ask the dependent
territories to consider the abolition of capital
punishment would be open to the objection, in the case
of Hong Kong, that an immediate reaction in favour of
the retention of capital punishment could be expected
from the unofficial members of the Governor's Executive
Council (and hence it would not appear as sufficient
justification for commuting the death sentence in the
present case): and generally that the outcome
of such a review in the
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