TNAG-0487-FCO40-552-Review-of-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 218

BACKGROUND NOTE ·

I Capital Punishment in Dependent Territories

1.

The Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act 1965 which

received The Royal Assent on 8 November 1965, provided for the

Abolition of capital punishment of persons convicted in

Great Britain of murder for a period of 5 years. In December

1969 Parliament resolved that the Act should not expire.

Capital punishment was thus permanently abolished for persons

convicted of murder in Great Britain.

2. In 1965 the then Secretary of State for the Colonies

invited the Governments of Dependent Territories to consider the

introduction of similar legislation in their territories also.

3. Again in 1970 the then Pecretary of State for Foreign and

Commonwealth Affairs requested Governors of Dependent Territories

to "take note of the recent changes in the law of the United

Kingdom and consider whether changes can now be introduced in

the legislation in force in your territory to bring it into line

with the present law in the United Kingdom".

4.

/

The Legislatures of the following territories declined

both in 1965 and 1970 to amend their law to abolish capital

punishment for murder, and therefore still retain the death

penalty: -

Bahamas (since independent)

Bermuda

British Honduras

British Virgin Islands

Cayman Islands

Hong Kong (the only British Dependent Territory

without elected unofficial members in the Legislature)

Montserrat

Turks and Caicos Islands

New Hebrides (Condominium with France)

}