TNAG-0601-FCO40-749-Capital-punishment-in-Dependent-Territories-1977 — Page 91

CONFIDENTIAL

11.

The need to consider changing the present system is made urgent by the

fact that sentences of death have been passed on two convicted murderers in Bermuda. The local Prerogative of Mercy Committee has advised that the law should take its course. The Governor has accepted this advice and so informed the two men. A petition to The Queen on their behalf has been received and is

under consideration. Pending a decision the Governor has imposed a stay of

execution. Under the Creech-Jones doctrine the petition would have to be

rejected.

Implications in the DOT

12. The Governors of the DOT concerned were asked in August to give a personal assessment of the current state of public opinion in their territories on the issue of capital punishment. In territories where violent crime is a particu- lar problem such as Hong Kong and Belize, Governors predict local opposition to any moves to abolish capital punishment. This attitude is reflected in all the local legislatures who clearly do not share the views of the United Kingdom Parliament on this question. But only in the case of Hong Kong (where capital punishment has in effect been suspended since 1973) did the Governor feel that local reactions would be so adverse as to lead him to recommend that the abolition or suspension of the death penalty for murder should not be pursued. In the Caribbean, the feeling of Governors is that abolition or suspension could be considered but that it would be best imposed unilaterally and openly

from outside.

13. It is the firm policy of the British Government to promote the independence of all the remaining DOT. There are problems, in some cases insuperable, over the implementation of this policy (Hong Kong and Belize). On the other hand, some of the remaining DOT see advantages for themselves in not proceeding to

In these independence although there is no reason why they should not do so. cases local Governments could be told that to remain a DOT implies certain constraints on their behaviour which must be set against the very palpable benefits which they gain from their continuing connection with the United Kingdom. As for those DOT which cannot be given independence for reasons out- side their own control but which retain the death penalty, they too must accept that links with and dependency on a metropolitan power must necessarily entail some constraints on the independent exercise of their authority.

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CONFIDENTIAL