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5. The Constitution of Belize gives the elected Ministers and legislature virtual internal self-government. The Governor
retains reserve powers only for external affairs, defence, internal security and the public service.
6. In March 1974, the Governor of Belize accepted the unanimous advice of his Advisory Committee and decided not to exercise his delegated prerogative in a capital case involving the murder of a police constable by a notorious local criminal, who was hanged. In that case there was no petition for mercy to The queen. A Belizian "black power" newspaper has challenged the Governor not to show racial discrimination by reprieving the white American now convicted of murder.
Argument
7. The decision to abolish capital punishment in the UK (but not in the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands) was taken on a free vote in Parliament. It would be inconsistent not to allow the issue to be decided by the free vote of the elected legislatures of the five West Indian Dependent Territories and Bermuda all of which in fact decided to retain capital punishment. We know that opinion in the territories remains strongly in favour of retaining capital punish- ment. There is no doubt that a major constitutional crisis would be provoked if HG were to seek to impose the abolition of capital punishment on these territories (eg by Crder in Council) over the heads of the elected legislatures and in defiance of local public /equally opinion. It would be/ illogical for the secretary of State, in the
event of a petition to The Queen, to advise Her to override the decision of the Governor to whom She has delegated Her Prerogative, except in the case of an apparent miscarriage of justice.
8. The Governor of Bermuda recently suggested that the Secretary of State might have less difficulty in defending an execution in a Dependent Territory in Parliament if the Constitution were amended to require the Governor to act on the advice of his liinisterial Advisory Committee, in the same way as The queen in the United Kingdom acts on the advice of Her Ministers. We do not agree with this suggestion.
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