Scm P
GIDAY, APRIL 27. 1973
A PLEA FOR THE LIFE
YOR TOOK KWOK-CHEONG
Governor's to grant Tsoi
most
In the controversy surrounding the decision not Kwok cheong a reprieve one. and In
view. our important fact seems to have been overlooked. No one has been hanged since November 1966 during which time 30 convicted murderers have been reprieved.
Either the decision in Tsoi's case marks a change in policy or his must have been more heinous a crime than any of the other 30 with fewer or mitigating factors compared with them.
по
Whatever the Governor's attitude towards the death penalty may be, it remains an
incontrovertible fact that the public at large, and certainly the undersigned, have been led to believe that in practice the death penalty was a thing of the past in Hongkong.
in such circumstances, if a change of policy was contemplated, the public ought to have been appraised of such change. It would have been a simple matter for the Governor to have reminded the public that the death penalty was still part of the law and that it should not be assumed that it would never be enforced. The coincidence Governor's decision
of the
not to
commute this particular sentence of death with the
C
Spare Tsoi appeal
A letter signed by 71 Hongkong residents, headed by the Anglican Bishop. the Rt Rev Gilbert Baker and the Roman Catholic Bishop.the Ri Rev Francis Hsu, has been sent to the Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Sir Alec Douglas Home. to save the life of a condemned _murderer, Tsoi Kwok cheong.
much heralded anti-crime campaign and the proposals of the Government to withdraw a very large category of cases from the benefit of trial by jury is, to say the least of it, very disturbing.
However much some may consider Mr Tsoi should hang, we cannot believe that it is right that it should appear that he is to die as an introductory step to the measures mentioned.
we have
We cannot escape feeling that had Tsoi been convicted earlier his chances of survival might have been greater, and we are gravely troubled that this step. in these circumstances, may give the noose the appearance of being a lottery. Public policy has been judicially defined as an “unruly horse" to ride; we have never before heard it suggested that public policy could be а sacrificial altar,
Certain signatories of this letter are in favour of capital punishment but cannot look with equanimity upon its enforcement in this case.
A copy has also been sent to the Leader of the Opposition. Mr Harold Wilson. at the House of Commons.
The full text of the letter and the signatories are published today on the correspondence page (Page 10).
Those signing the letter also include all the Queen's Counsel in Hongkong.
GILBERT BAKER FRANCIS HISU
S. V. GITTINS Q.C. GERALD DA BASTO Q.C. BROOK BERNACCHI Q.C. HENRY LITTON Q.C. I. R. A. MacCALLUM NANCY MA
B. S. McELNEY R. F. M. PURVIS MICHAEL STEVENSON P. J. THOMPSON BRIAN TISDALL DENIS CHANG ROBERT WEI R. C. TANG ROBERT CHAU CAESAR WONG PAUL HIN-SAI FOK MING HUANG
A. K. SAKHRANI
M. H. JACKSON LIPKIN DEREK DAVIES LEO GOODSTADT MARTHA S. BAKER VICTORIA YING CHAN DAVID MAN CHAN TONG JOHN REAR
RAY FAULKNER DAFYDD EVANS PRANAB KUMAR-DAS KEVIN CLEMENTS MURRAY GROVES C. GLYN-DANIEL DUNCAN B. HUNTER GEOFFREY BLOWERS JOHN RUSSELL MOHAN SHATAK HANS SCHMIDT STEPHEN LEVIN DAVID LEVIN DAVID IP FU-KEUNG
E. R. DAVEY
R. A. RIBEIRO
T. G. McGEE
M. G. SPOONER
S. F. RICHARDS
C. C. CHOW
N. N. S. CHEN
E. C. M. YOUNG
K. T. LEUNG
J. T. YIU
PETER WESLEY-SMITH S. W. IVISON
L. R. WRIGHT ALAN BIRCH MARY VISICK MBE BERNARD DOWNEY FELICITY SHANKS L. T. GOODRICH S. K. FUNG
H. YAPP
J. K. RICHARDS.
J. FARRINGTON
M. B. SPOONER
A. R. MARSH
E. H. HAMMONDS WILLIAM WRIGHTER
C. G. NEW
M. J. BENNETT BRIAN M. YOUNG
AXC1014/16
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