Our reference: Your reference:
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY No.51
19 JAN 1974
HKK 14/1
A C Stuart Esq
CONFIDENTIAL
HOME OFFICE
Whitehall, LONDON S.W.I Telephone: WHItehall 8100, ext. 359
Telex: 24986
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept
FCO
LONDON SW1
17 January 1974
Dear Stuart.
DEATH SENTENCES: HONG KONG
LAS?
RFT
NEX
REF.
I return the papers in the case of Liu Chu which you sent me with your letter of 7 January.
As regards the circumstances of the offence, I agree that it is not easy to see any positive mitigating factors which could be taken as grounds for clemency. It is, I suppose, possible to say that this was the act of a frightened and cornered man re- acting unthinkingly in the excitement of the chase. It appears that when the pursuer caught up with the pursued there was a struggle in which the prisoner suffered minor injuries which may have shocked and enraged him; and in this connection the defence might perhaps have made something of the point that, although the accused was in possession of a table knife acquired for the purposes of the robbery, he did not apparently use it in the fatal struggle - which could be taken to support the contention that he acted impulsively using a weapon which happened to come to hand in the course of his flight from his pursuers. I cannot say, however, that these points are very convincing and my own view is that, in the light of all the evidence, it is not really possible to excuse the subsequent violent attack on the watchman on grounds of provocation or self-defence.
As regards the circumstances of the offender, I do not think it is possible to form a final view on present information. It would be desirable, as you say, to have a psychiatric report and I would hope that some further information could be obtained about the prisoner's way of life and his antecedent history before a decision is reached. I note, for instance, that the prisoner pleaded poverty as the excuse for the robbery: is there reason to think that his circumstances were so extreme as to make him a specially desperate man? Again, there are reported to be more than 30 previous convictions, "mostly opium and drugs": is there a possibility that excessive indulgence in drugs had effected his mental responsibility?
CONFIDENTIAL
Draft letter to
He Governor
ра
Pork
1811