TNAG-0600-FCO40-748-Capital-punishment-in-Dependent-Territories-1977 — Page 40

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deciding these matters than anything the Secretary of State could do here; and would be contrary to the common sense of the situation, since the Governor, knowing all the circumstances is in a better position to judge whether the Prerogative of Mercy should be exercised

in any particular case.

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3. The years in which executions were last carried out in the present Dependent Territories (and in those Commonwealth countries of which The Queen is Head of State) are shown at Annex B.

The need for change

4. In 1965 and in 1970 the Secretary of State of the day invited the

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which Governors of the Dependent Territories where capital punishment retained Puito bring it into line with that in the United Kingdom. The legislatures of Рясні agreed

to consider introducing changes in legislation on capital punishment in order

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the territories concerned refused to do so. In 1974 the then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Callaghan) took the view that if an execution in a Dependent Territory became imminent there would be "no prospect of returning to the Creoch Jones formula.... nor of sustaining it when challenged in the House", Since that time Parliament has decided against the re-introduction of the death penalty for terrorist offences and there would be considerable support for its abolition for the offences for which it is still retained. Although the executions in Belize in 1974 and

the British Virgin Islands in 1972 did not provoke controversy, the present assessment is that, if a death sentence were now carried out a

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Langely because the mecoing no overios

polsticity

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Territory, reactions in Parliament would be strong. Bermodel lok dent

This would obviously hot izely to crimes subject to decitu pandy

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5.

A further consideration is the situation in Hong Kong. As a result of pressure from Her Majesty's Government 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 punishment of life imprisonment unless exceptional circumstances justified a lesser punishment. Public opinion in Hong Kong remains strongly in favour of the death penalty. Although there was no strong reaction to the

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