CONFIDENTIAL
ANNEX B
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR MURDER IN THE DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
1. The distinction between Hong Kong and the other six Dependent Territories which retain capital punishment for murder is that the latter have elected legislatures who have expressed a desire to
keep it. They are:
Belize
Turks & Caicos Islands
Montserrat
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Bermuda
Capital punishment was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1965 (but not in the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands) on a free vote in
Parliament, and it was therefore logical to allow the elected legislatures in the Dependent Territories the same right of decision. We know from recent enquiries that public opinion in these territories, reflected in their elected legislatures, remains strongly in favour of the retention of capital punishment.
2. The Queen's Prerogative of Mercy is delegated to the Governor in each of these Territories, and rests in his undivided discretion. However, before deciding whether a sentence of death should be commuted or carried out, which he does after all the judicial appeal processes have been exhausted, he is required to take advice from a committee of
local Ministers or members of his Executive Council. That advice will
naturally carry considerable weight with him, particularly if it is unanimous, but the final decision rests with him alone.
3.
The Secretary of State has no locus standi to intervene unless a condemned man, whose sentence the Governor has felt unable to commute, thereafter petitions The Queen for mercy. In that event the Secretary of State is required to advise Her on the exercise of Her residual prerogative.
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