CONFIDENTIAL
"The Secretary of State for Scotland and I have considered what course we ought to adopt in considering in future the oases of persons sentenced to death. It would be unconstitutional for us to abrogate capital punishment by administrative action in anticipation of the amendment of the law and it is our duty to apply our minds to the circumstances of each particular case. Each case will be considered on its merits, regard being had to the special considerations relating to that case and all relevant considerations of either
a public or private nature."
All subsequent governmental statements followed this line and although the figures for reprieves and executions given in Annex A show that a reprieve was granted in every case considered during the specific periods when amending legislation was before Parliament (ie in 1956 and 1965), in every instance a full submission was made to the Home Secretary setting out the circumstances of the offence and suggesting reasons for commuting the death sentence other than the current parliamentary discussion. Capital punishment for murder was abolished, as regards Great Britain, by the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 (a Private Member's Bill which enjoyed Government assistance) for an experimental period of up to five years: the position was made permanent by resolutions of Parliament in December 1969. In Northern Ireland the death penalty remained on the statute book for certain kinds of murder until 1973 (although there had been no executions for many years): it was then abolished on the initiative of the then Government, in the context of the handling of the emergency, by section 1 of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973. The death penalty remains for treason (for practical purposes, a wartime offence) and for the obsolete offence of piracy (or mutiny) with violence.
The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man
6. Carital punishment has been abolished in Guernsey but not in Jersey or the Isle of Man. Although Parliament has the power to legislate for the Islands it would be contrary to constitutional convention for it to do so in domestic matters without the concurrence of their governments (which would probably not be forthcoming in respect of so domestic a matter as the criminal law). The Royal Commission on the Constitution emphasised the importance of respecting
convention.
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CONFIDENTIAL
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