CONFIDENTIAL
Hong Kong (paragraph 3)
4.
In 1973 the then Secretary of State recommended a reprieve for Taoi Kwok-cheong contrary to the "Creech Jones" formula in view of strong feelings expressed at the time in Parliament on the death
penalty and its imminent abolition in Northern Ireland. The fact that the Legislative Council in Hong Kong is not an elected body and cannot properly represent public opinion was also a factor.
The Alternatives (paragraph 4)
5.
i) Removal from Governors of power to exercise prerogative
of mercy
Such a course would have the advantage that it would not imply any change in local legislation and would avoid the situation whereby a Governor's retention of the
prerogative is seen locally to be ineffective. In those cases where the prerogative of mercy is devolved by Royal Instructions its removal would seem to be the most suitable method of avoiding the use of the death penalty. However, where the devolution is enshirined in the
constitution of a dependency, its removal would require constitutional amendment.. Moreover, such an amendment would be abhorrent to the local government and the British Government would have to make it unilaterally in the face of such opposition. No amendment could be made to the Bermuda Constitution without consulting the Bermuda Government which, it must be assumed, would refuse to
consider it.
ii) An instruction to Governors to introduce legislation to
abolish capital punishment
In Bermuda (and Belize where the Governor is likely
to be in a position to commute in an outstanding capital case) the Governor has no powers to introduce such legislation himself. It may be that there is no similar
limitation in less constitutionally advanced territories but if legislation cannot be imposed in the dependencies with which we are immediately concerned, there is little
2
CONFIDENTI AL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.