Registry No.
„SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
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Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
DRAFT
CONFIDENTIAL
To:-
Sir D Watson
PS/Miss Lestor
PS/S of S
cc: Mr McNally
Type 1 +
FROM
J S CHAMPION
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
In Confidence
Our
I have proposed some
amendment,
417
pr
to take in you paint there have been agreed.
4
the/
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY No. 51
-
· 4 MAR 1975
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Problem
1.
If the Governor of a Dependent Territory which retains capital punishment and in which there is an elected legislature, after consultation with the local Ministerial Advisory Committee, declines to exercise his delegated Frerogative of Mercy in order to commute a death sentence, and the convicted.. murderer then petitions The Queen for mercy, should the Secretary of State disregard the so-called "Creech Jones Doctrine" established in 1947? This doctrine prescribes that in these circumstances the Secretary of State would only advise The Queen to intervene if there had been an apparent miscarriage
of justice.
Background
}
2. The explanation of this doctrine, .as given by Mr Creech Jones, the then Secretary of State for,/Colonies, in the House of Commons on 11 August 1947 is contained
in Annex A attached.
3. The judicial appeal by an American citizen who was convicted of the murder of another American
in Belize and sentenced to death is imminent. The trial Judge described the killing as a calculated cold blooded act. The Governor of Belize has told us that if the appeal is dismissed he intends to summon his Advisory Committe and reach his decision by 21 March. The Committee's advice may well be that the sentence should be carried out. (Another appeal against a death sentence in Belize is also pending).
4. The Constitution of Belize gives the elected Ministers and legislature virtual internal self-
/government
CONFIDENTIAL
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7323 D073615 280M 4/74 Cr.P.C. 839/3
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