CONFIDENTIAL
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evidence suggests that there has been no change in local opinion since 1970. The result is that policy towards the devolution
of the Prerogative of Mercy to Governors continues to be governed by the "Creech Jones" formula whereby there would be no interference in the non-exercise of the Prerogative of Mercy by Governors, save if there had been an evident miscarriage of justice. However, Mr Callaghan, when Secretary of State, minuted in 1974, in the context of a submission on the capital punishment issue in
Hong Kong, that he saw no prospect of returning to the Creech Jones formula for the time being and of sustaining it when challenged
in the House.
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Arguments Against Maintaining the Status Quo
4.
It is not clear to what extent public opinion in the United Kingdom is for or against capital punishment. Parliament has, however, decided against the re-introduction of the death penalty for terrorists and the majority of opinion in Parliament, and of articulate opinion in Britain generally, is quite certainly in favour of its continuing abolition in all cases. If the death sentences were carried out in the Bermuda or Belize cases, there would undoubtedly be strong adverse reactions at Westminster. I assume that Ministers would wish to avoid such a situation.
5. A further consideration is Hong Kong. As a result of pressure from HMG and of the Governor's efforts in persuading his Executive Council not to oppose commutation, no death sentence has been carried out in Hong Kong since 1966. The Governor's understanding with his Executive Council is not water-tight, however, and in response to local pressure to restore the use of the death penalty the Governor had to announce in late 1975 that whenever he commuted a death sentence he would impose the alternative punish- ment of life imprisonment unless exceptional circumstances justified a lesser punishment. Public opinion in Hong Kong remains strongly in favour of the restoration of the death penalty and if a death sentence were carried out in another dependent territory there would be a strong and virulent reaction in
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CONFIDENTIAL
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