MOTION FOR THE EASTER ADJOURNMENT
DEPENDENT TERRITORIES: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
SPEAKING NOTE
Under a policy enunciated in 1947 by the then Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr Arthur Creech-Jones, and followed since then by successive British Governments, the Secretary of State does not advise Her Majesty to intervene in capital, or other criminal cases in the Dependent Overseas Territories, except in the very rare event that a miscarriage of justice might otherwise take place. This policy is based on the reasoning that the Governor and his advisers, being on the spot, are mich better placed to form a judgement based on all aspects of a case than is the Secretary of State. In latter years justification for the maintenance of the doctrine has been that democratically elected legislatures in the various territories (except Hong Kong) have themselves decided to maintain capital punishment. In the unique cirowastances of Hong Kong, the Cresch÷Junea policy is considered not to apply. Hong Kong is a territory where the legislative is not democratically elected by the local population, whereas in all of the other territories where capital punishment is retained there are democratically elected local legislatures, which have in every case confirmed the decision not to abolish the death penalty.
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