MKB
·ECEIVED IN RE
380
07 AUG 1990
MR BEAMISH
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM:
DATE:
RS GORHAM, WIAD 23 JULY 1990
CC:
PS/MR MAUDE
A
PS/MR SAINSBURY
PS
PS/LORD BRABAZON PS/PUS
MR MCLAREN
UND
HONG KONG DEPT
LEGAL ADVISERS
POLICY PLANNING STAFF
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
Problem
1. Whether to take advantage of the Criminal Justice Bill to be introduced in the next session of Parliament to provide us with powers to abolish capital punishment for murder in the Dependent Territories. The Home Office as sponsers of the Bill will want to consider very carefully before accepting an additional clause about the DTS.
Recommendation
2. I recommend that the Secretary of State write to the Home Secretary proposing an amendment to his Bill and submit a draft. UND agree.
HKD and their Legal Advisers
have been consulted.
Argument
3.
At his meeting of 18 February to consider a capital punishment case in Bermuda, the Secretary of State said that we should keep in mind the possibility of adding a clause to the Criminal Justice Bill to amend the Creech-Jones doctrine under which Governors take sole responsibility for exercising the Prerogative of Mercy in those Dependent Territories which still retain capital punishment. Capital punishment is retained in:-
Anguilla
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Hong Kong
Montserrat
Turks and Caicos Islands
Enquiries were made of the Cabinet Office about the timing of the proposed Bill, but we were only told in June that a Bill based upon the White Paper "Crime
CONFIDENTIAL
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