Registry
No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential.
DRAFT
LETTER
To:-
Edmund M Johnston Esq 2 Eton Street PLYMOUTH
DSR11
Type 1 +
From
Secretary of State
Telephone No. Ext.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
....................................................................................In Confidence
there has
ken
The fact that
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Comericel
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Department
I am sorry Erhave not been able to reply earlier to your letter of 10 December about the executions in Bermuda but I have been away for a short break and I wanted to reply to you personally.
Bermuda has almost complete internal self-government and the administration of justice is an internal matter, under the control of the Bermudian Government. Under the policy which has been accepted for many years by successive Foreign Commonwend
British Governments, the Secretary of state does not Can only
intervene in a particular case of capital punishment unless he has grounds to believe that a serious miscarriage of justice might take place. In the cases of the two convicted/murderers, Burrows and Tacklyn, I considered carefull all aspects of the process leading to the final
confirmation of the death sentences, but could find no evidence to suggest that a miscarriage of justice had occurred.
You may, however, have seen that I told the House of Commons on 5 December that I was prepared to review the whole question of capital punishment in the Dependent Overseas Territories if that is Parliament's wish.
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Dd 108087 400M S&K 1/77
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