From The Minister of State
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
《
December 1977
242
Thank you for your letter of 30 November in which you asked me to intervene to stop the executions in Bermuda. fully appreciate your concern.
I
The administration of justice in Bermuda is an internal matter proper to the Bermudian Government. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs could only have intervened in such a case of capital punishment if he had had grounds to believe that a serious miscarriage of justice might have taken place. In the cases of the two convicted murderers, Burrows and Tacklyn, the Secretary of State considered care- fully all aspects of the process leading to the final confirm- ation of the death sentences, but could find no evidence to suggest that a miscarriage of justice had occurred.
I am enclosing an extract from Hansard which includes the statement by the Secretary of State to the House of Commons together with his answers to the points subsequently put to him.
P Butterworth Esq
"White Windows"
Dean Down Drive
Littleton
Winchester
Hants
(Frank Judd)
HKC 3891
RECEIVED
INDEX
No
- 8 DEC 1977
. 51
REGISTRY
Action Taken
B
288
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