Sir Duncan Watson
FS/Miss Lestor
CONFIDENTIAL
RECEIVE IN REGISTAX Pa. 71
·6 MAR 1975
Problem
1.
PA
To decide how to reply to a letter from Mr Russell Johnstone HIF who, in the context of the conviction of Mr Alton Wayne oore on a charge of murder committed in Belize, asks if there is a general policy on capital punishment in the Dependent Territories and, if so, why it does not follow UK practice.
Background
2. Mr Moore, a citizen of the United States of America, appeared before the Belize Supreme Court on 29 April 1974 charged with the murder of Walter Fitts on 23 October 1973. He was found guilty by the unanimous verdict of a jury and sentenced to death. The trial judge decribed the killing as a calculated cold-blooded act.
3. Hoore lodged an appeal which was to have been heard towards the end of October last year but the Belize Court of Appeal, having heard arguments put forward by his defence counsel, agreed to defer the hearing until its next session which is now imminent.
4. The Governor of Belize, who is aware of 's' interest in this case, has not yet told us the result of the appeal.
5. If the appeal is dismissed, the Governor of Belize intends to summon his Advisory Committee and reach his decision whether to exercise his delegated prerogative of mercy by 21 March. The Committee's advice may well be that the sentence should be carried out.
6. The immediate responsibilities of the Governor and the residual responsibilities of the secretary of State on the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of ercy are examined in
submission of 4 arch, which recommends that the secretary of State should continue to abide by the so-called "Creech Jones Doctrine". is doctrine, original y laid down in 1947, is to the effect that in the event of a petition to The queen from a person sentenced to death in a Dependent Territory, the Secretary of state should not advise Her to intervene unless there is an apparent miscarriage of justice.
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