CONFIDENTIAL
abolition of the death penalty was being debated in the UK), the then Foreign Secretary intervened to prevent an execution in Hong Kong and since then governors have invariably commuted.
In Hong has been Kong's case, the justification for commutation is) that in the absence of a Mercy Committee with members responsible to an elected
legislature, special attention should be paid to the views of Parliament in the United Kingdom. (Constitutionally the Caribbean Dependent Territories and Bermuda are more advanced: their LegCos are fully elected).
I am
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because allough
Hower
am (therefore) excluding Hong Kong from these proposals, Though public opinion there is generally in favour of the death penalty, its effective abolition has been accepted by most people. But the
issue remains very sensitive, not least because of the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, and Any United Kingdom action to end capital punishment in the Caribbean territories would be bound to stir up
has expressed a debate and controversy in Hong Kong. The Governor strong preference is therefore not to raise the issue of capital punishment in the Dependent Territories now, and he certainly would not wish anything to be done in regard to Hong Kong. But he agrees that abolition through Order in Council applying to the Caribbean Territories alone would be less damaging than any of the alternatives. If we were challenged as to why we had not taken the opportunity to legislate for Hong Kong, we would take the line that there is no immediate need for any action, and that it would be
wrong to insist that Hong Kong should be required to follow the
United Kingdom lead in such a sensitive area when we were seeking to build up the territory's autonomy in the run up to 1997.
E Draft Order in Council
the
The draft Order applies to Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands,
Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands. I t
provides for the abolition of capital punishment for murder in those
territories and substitutes a penalty of life imprisonment. The
Order is modelled on Section 1 of the Murder (Abolition of Death
Penalty) Act 1965 which abolished capital punishment for the crime of murder in the UK (although in theory retaining capital punishment
for other crimes such as treason which still attract the death
penalty). Under the constitutions of all the territories to which
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/the