CONFIDENTIAL : STAFF IN CONFIDENCE
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any more executions taking place. He is therefore now asking to
be relieved so far as possible of the responsibility for an
execution.
10.
In minuting on an earlier version of this submission,
Mr Harding suggested that Mr Davidson should be given positive
Ministerial guidance on the question. Mr Day suggested that, if
Governors were to be helped, it could be done by:
a) legislation in Westminster to abolish capital
punishment for murder or by transferring the
final decision on mercy to a Secretary of State
of HMG; or
11.
b) indicating to Governors that if they felt disposed
to commute a death sentence in their own right and
purely on grounds of conscience, they would have the
full support of HMG.
The first option would require a change of the previous
Ministerial decision on policy. The second also poses problems.
It is certainly right that Governors should be assured in advance
that their decision will be supported. But it would not be right
to tell them that conscientious objection to capital punishment
is a factor which they can properly take into account in reaching
a decision. Governors are under oath to carry out their duties
in accordance with the laws of the Territories and must respect
laws imposing capital punishment. The same objections apply to a
suggestion by Mr Davidson that Governors should be officially
instructed that they may take into account the non-use of the
death penalty in the United Kingdom. The departmental Legal
Adviser concurs on both these points.
/12.
CONFIDENTIAL: STAFF IN CONFIDENCE