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RECEIVER
- 2 DEC 1977
DESK OPPE ST
INDEX
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CONFIDENTIAL
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Secretary of State
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
1. You will recall that Ministers decided in GEN 103 that it
would be wrong to introduce a general change in the policy on capital punishment in the Dependent Overseas Territories (DOTs)
against the background of the two Bermuda cases, but that we
should reconsider the matter later.
2. The Secretary of State has now told the Governor of Bermuda
that he would not advise HM The Queen to intervene. The executions
are due to take place on 2 December.
3. I had hoped to raise the general policy question again in about January. However, a new case has now arisen in the British
Virgin Islands which also seems likely to lead to a confirmed death sentence. A young St Lucian, Sylvester Gaston, was convicted of the murder of an old lady of 67, a well-liked and respected resident of Tortola. The accused, who has never denied the
killing, went to her shop one morning, put a rope around her neck and stabbed her repeatedly. The case has aroused considerable local feeling and the Governor has said that it is likely that
the appeal, set for 11 January, will fail. If it does and the
case goes before the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of
Mercy, the Governor thinks that a majority of the Committee will advise that the law should take its course. (The last execution
in the BVI was in 1972).
4.
Given the view taken by GEN 103 that it would be improper
to change the general policy while a particular case was under consideration, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers should be aware that it is likely that a further petition to The Queen
pleading that she should intervene and exercise her Prerogative
of Mercy is to be expected in February or March.
CONFIDENTIAL