For information
CONFIDENTIAL
ANNEX B
XCCI (78)16
Copy No. 34 of 40
NOTE FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Note by the Attorney General
COMMUTATION
SUBSTITUTED SENTENCE
The Governor directed me to prepare this Note following the emergence again, in the course of considering
the case of LAU Kwok-kei, of clear differences of view as to
the appropriate sentence to be substituted following
commutation of the death sentence.
2.
The differences concern the way in which the statement made by the Chief Secretary in the Legislative Council on 6th November 1975 (Annex A) ought to be applied in practice. However, the issue is not quite as direct as that. It is inevitable that, in so significant a matter as the
substitution of another sentence for a death sentence, differences of view will emerge in particular cases, regardless of the Chief Secretary's statement. In tendering advice with respect to the sentence which ought to be substituted, Members are applying penal policy. Given the
distinct differences as to sentences which occur as between
members of judiciaries in most countries, it would be
surprising if Members invariably found themselves in agreement - in the absence of a general policy of imposing one
alternative sentence only.
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