(17259) Dd.897459 250m 12/72 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863 (16941) Dd.897300 250m 9/72 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
I am not sure how you would envisage such a request being presented, and you may like to consider the implications of all this a bit further before
discussing with ExCo.
6.
"Automatic commutation" could provide a
way out, though it would be necessary for you
(and Ministers) to bear in mind that you could not
formally bind either yourself or your successors
in your exercise of the prerogative; nor could your
Executive Councillors or their successors be held
to any "gentlemen's agreement" to acquiesce in your
decisions. Moreover our advice is that any general
statement that reprieves would always be granted
would be constitutionally improper, even if only
for a temporary period pending the consideration of
substantive legislation, since it would mean the
abrogation of the law by administrative action.
exercise of the prerogative of mercy has to remain
on a case by case basis. Any consultations with
Exco on this subject would therefore have to be
both in the strictest confidence and completely
informal; there could be no written commitment; and
nothing could be said publicly.
7.
You decide to Sound,
sin/ExCo
but discussio
If goundings in ExCo on these possibili
were not to go well, you might wish to consider at
least an immediate decision that Liu Chu should be
reprieved, on the ground of avoiding an immediate
confrontation with the new administration.
The
There is
also the point. that, in discharging your own personal
responsibility, you might feel it right to take
into account the propriety of carrying out the
death sentence on an individual prisoner when the
/maintenance