VOLUME 8
RESTRICTED
CHAPTER 12
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY
12.1
12.3
12.1 GENERAL
12.1.1
The following Dependent Territories (DTs) still retain the death penalty:
Belize
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Hong Kong
Montserrat
Turks and Caicos Islands
12.1.2 All cases involving capital sentence are dealt with by Hong Kong and General Department.
12.1.3
A petition to The Queen to exercise the Prerogative of Mercy when sentence of death has been passed by a court in a DT is normally a petition against a decision already made by the Officer Administering the Government. Both on this ground and because the matter is one of life and death, the Secretary of State's responsibility is engaged in a special manner, and particular care must be exercised to treat such petitions, and the preliminaries of such petitions, in the most thorough and expeditious manner. Reference should be made to the Secretary of State's despatch HXC 14/501/3 of 13 May 1971 and its enclosures (available from Hong Kong & General Department), and the procedures laid down therein must be followed. See also the "Foreign and Commonwealth Office Memorandum on the Prerogative of Mercy in Capital Cases in Dependent Territories" dated January 1969 and Chapter 9.
12.2
PROCEDURE WHEN PETITION NOT GRANTED
If the Secretary of State's decision is that a petition should not be granted, a note should be sent from the Private Secretary to The Queen's Private Secretary with the advice that the reply should be "the petition has been laid before Her Majesty, but the Secretary of State was unable to advise Her Majesty that the petition should be granted".
12.3
PETITION ADDRESSED TO SECRETARY OF STATE
When a petition is addressed to the Secretary of State (not to The Queen), the reply submitted should be that since the Prerogative of Mercy has been delegated by The Queen to the OAG, the Secretary of State is not prepared to intervene (unless the Secretary of State makes some other decision).
October 1978
56
RESTRICTED