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E.R.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UK, THE CHANNEL ISLANDS, AND THE ISLE OF MAN
person
1 The Royal Prerogative of Mercy is the power of the Sovereign to show
mercy towards a convicted by mitigating or removing the consequences of an con-
viction. The Home Secretary recommends the exercise of the Royal Prerogative
if he is satisfied, after considering all the circumstances, that it can
properly be used in clemency or to correct a miscarriage of justice which
cannot be corrected by the normal processes of the law. For the purpose of
this paper, it is important to know how the potential or actual removal of
the power to impose the death penalty has affected the way in which the
Prerogative has been exercised in the UK, the Channel Islands and the
Isle of Man.
The United Kingdom
2 In April 1948, when a non-Government amendment was made to the Criminal
Justice Bill suspending the sentence of death for murder for an experimental
period of five years, the Home Secretary, Mr Chuter Ede, made a statement to
the House of Commons saying that he considered that it would be abhorrent to
public opinion to carry out the death sentence in the period before the
Criminal Justice Bill became law and that he had advised The King that he
would feel it his duty during this period to recommend commutation of all
capital sentences. Although it was subsequently recognised that this
statement offended the constitutional principle that the Prerogative must be
exercised in relation to the circumstances of individual cases and not in
accordance with a predetermined policy reprieves were automatically recommended
in all cases considered while the Bill was still before Parliament. Two
months later, following the rejection by the House of Lords of the clause
suspending the death sentence, the Home Secretary made a further statement,
saying that his earlier one had been considered in some quarters to be
unconstitutional and that "from now on each case will be considered on its
merits, regard being had to the special circumstances relating to that case
and all other relevant considerations either of a public or a private nature".
It was against this background that Mr Creech-Jones announced the policy still
followed in relation to dependent territories.
3 In 1956, when Mr Silverman's Death Penalty (Abolition) Bill had been
introduced, the then Home Secretary, Major Gwilym Lloyd George, put a paper
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