TNAG-0600-FCO40-748-Capital-punishment-in-Dependent-Territories-1977 — Page 128

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[TEXT] ? From HKCD.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

'On Minister' wis loveline

been estableind

1. An official committee has just cohould continue

aulah - not

CONSIDERED

to consider whether the "Creech Jones" policy should continue to amph Ling those DTs which retain the death penalty, and it is no longer relevant to advise that the "Creech Jones" doctrine should be abrogated. Juhluw

2. In recent years the policy of successive Secretaries of

State regarding capital punishment in the Dependent Territories has followed that established by the former Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr Creech Jones, where by HM The Queen would

not be advised to intervene in the non-exercise of the

Prerogative of Mercy by a Colonial Governor, unless there had been an evident miscarriage of justice. Since that time t the death penalty for murder has been abolished in the United Kingdom and is retained as a punishment for murder in only seven of the remaining dependent territories.

/The