Mr Murray
PS/PUS
PS/Mr Rowlands
PS
CONFIDENTIAL
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN DEPENDENT OVERSEAS TERRI TORI ES
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1.
At a meeting of the Cabinet Committee GEN 103 on 13 October, Ministers concluded that although they wished to change the present policy on capital punishment in the Dependent Overseas Territories this should not be done while the Bermuda case was under consider
ation. After the executions of 2 December there were public disturbances in Bermuda and before and after much public and parlia- mentary comment in Britain and pressure on the Secretary of State. We are now committed to a debate in the House of Commons on the question of capital punishment in dependent territories, both by the statement made by the Leader of the House on 8 December and by the Secretary of
State's statement in the House on 5 December. The Secretary of Flag D State has said that he would like to submit a paper to his colleagues
in GEN 103 on how the policy should be changed.
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B & C
2. The Bermuda case has underlined the need to change the present policy quickly before another similar case comes up for consideration. We may face another Bermuda-type situation in March, vis-à-vis the British Virgin Islands. We must also take account of the situation in Flag E Hong Kong. The Secretary of State has said that the position there
must be held. On one occasion in 1973 the Creech-Jones doctrine was breached there; since then the Governor has automatically commuted all capital sentences to life imprisonment. However, the Governor has often had difficulty in achieving a majority in his Executive Council for commutation. The Bermuda case has been widely discussed in Hong Kong and when next a capital case comes up in which no mitigating circumstances exist, the Governor will find even greater difficulty than in the past in resisting local demands to allow the law to take its course. Quick action over the general policy for dependencies will make the Governor's position easier.
CONFIDENTIAL