CONFIDENTIAL
DRAFT
Type 1 +
From
To:-
The Hon Sir Peter Ramsbotham,
Mr Cortazzi
CGCMG, GCVO
Telephone No. Ext.
HAMILTON
Department
DSR11
...................................................................................In Confidence
1. We have asked Legal Advisers here about the
constitutional and legal aspects of your proposal and
submitted their opinion to Ministers. The legal advice
which is long and technical can best be summarised by
saying that there are no precedents and grave legal
objections to taking away the responsibility for exercising
the prerogative of mercy from the Governor to whom it has
been delegated and placing it on a collective body which
would take the decision by/majority vote. Even if such a
system were established, the formal responsibility for the
action taken would be necessarily retained by the Governor.
buffer
He can
2. At present the Governor operates as a bugger between
the local committee and the Secretary of State.
often influence the Executive Council or Advisory
Committee in favour of commutation and can ignore their
advice if it is ill-founded.
At the moment in the British
Virgin Islands there is a case where the Judge considers
the jury to have been biased against an outsider convicted
of murder. The Judge feels that the circumstances warrant
a reprieve but it is not thought likely that the Mercy
Committee will share this view.
If the Governor were obliged
to accept their advice, he would be powerless to take account
of the trial Judge's opinion.
The Committee is likely to
take a stiffer line than the Governor so that more death
Dd 108087 400M S&K 1/77