CONFIDENTIAL
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9. In paragraph 11 of the Officials' Paper mention is made of the problem that two convicted murderers are under sentence of death in Bermuda. Since the Paper was drafted a petition has been received addressed to The Queen asking that the Prerogative of Mercy be exercised in this case. Legal Advisers are of the opinion that this is a petition sufficiently in the correct form to be considered. The Governor of Bermuda has said that he will impose a Stay of Execution in the two cases until a decision is made by Ministers on the proposals in front of the Ministerial Group on Capital Punishment. However, the Governor will not be able to hold this position indefinitely and unless Ministers do take action on 13 October, the petition should be submitted to HM The Queen with a recommendation based on the Creech-Jones formula that the two men should be hanged.
The Various Options
Option 1
10. The option of legislative action in the United Kingdom to abolish the death penalty in DOTS is the favoured solution of the Law Officers. This solution would be controversial and, as several Governors have said, would be resented bitterly in their dependencies. It would certainly cause trouble in Hong Kong which contains 90% of the population of the remaining DOTs affected. Moreover, this would take time and would not provide a solution for the immediate problem in Bermuda unless the Secretary of State were authorized to announce in Parliament that it was proposed to introduce such legislation and that, in the meantime, as happened in Great Britain, no executions would be permitted. Further, in Britain the death penalty is still retained for treason and for piracy (or mutiny) with violence. It would be difficult to put through legislation for the DOTS which abolished capital punishment for homicides only or conversely to abolish capital punishment for offences for which it was retained in Britain.
Option 2: Abrogation of the Creech-Jones Doctrine
11. This is the simplest solution and that originally proposed by the Secretary of State. It has the advantage that it makes no
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