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Governors to commute as in the past. I have therefore considered in which territories we should abolish capital punishment and how best to achieve it with the minimum of controversy both in the territories and in the UK.
Background
4.
Although we have abolished the death penalty for murder in the UK it remains on the statute books of seven of our
Dependent Territories: the five Caribbean Dependent
Territories, Bermuda and Hong Kong.
The Constitutional Position
5. In the Caribbbean DTs and Bermuda, judicial appeals are made from the local Supreme Courts to the local Courts of Appeal, and ultimately to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Thereafter, an appeal for clemency may be made to the Governor, advised by his Mercy Committee. (The Mercy Committee in Bermuda consists of local Ministers and representatives of public opinion. In most Caribbean DTS, the Mercy Committee is formed by the Executive Council, ie Ministers and senior officials). The Creech Jones doctrine, which dates from the 1940s, places the onus of the ultimate decision on the Governor. The Governor acts in loco
majestatis; British Ministers would not advise The Queen to intervene except in the exceptional circumstances of a manifest miscarriage of justice. In practice, therefore, a Governor's decision on commutatioin can take little or no account of the will of the British Parliament regarding capital punishment, as expressed in successive free votes.
/The
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