TNAG-0554-FCO40-649-Review-of-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 197

Sir Duncan Watson

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Problem

CONFIDENTIAL

RECEIVED IN

RECIO No. 51

- 3 MAR 1975

HKK 14/4

Eulv

I l Mer Schind

PA

1 If the Governor of a Dependent Territory which retains capital punishment and in which there is an elected legislature, after consultation with the local Ministerial Advisory Committe declines to exercise his delegated prerogative of Mercy in to commute a death sentence, and the convicted murderer then petitions The Queen for mercy, should the Secretary of State dis- regard the so-called "Creech Jones Doctrine" established in 1947 This doctrine prescribes that in these circumstances the Secretar of State would only advise The Queen to intervene if there had an apparent miscarriage of justice.

Background

2. This Submission does not cover the West Indies Associated States, all of which retain capital punishment, but in which the constitutional position differs somewhat from that in the Depende Territories.

3. A note on the Procedure for the Exercise of the Prerogative Mercy is attached at Annex A. An explanation of the doctrine, as given by Mr Creech Jones, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies in the House of Commons on 11 August 1947 is contained in Annex B.

4. A judicial appeal by an American citizen who was convicted o the murder of another American in Belize and sentenced to death in imminent. The trial Judge described the killing as a calculated cold blooded act. The Governor of Belize has told us that if the appeal is dismissed he intends to summon his Advisory Committee and reach his decision by 21 March. The Committee's advice may well be that the sentence should be carried out. (Another appeal against a death sentence in Belize is also pending.)

1.

CONFIDENTIAL