R.
JJ 2011
CONFIDENTI AL
submission
Mr Murray
PS/PUS
PS/Mr Rowlands
PS
467
Sir A Duff A
Sir I Sinclair
Mr Cortazzi
Mr Rushford
Mr Duff (WIAD) Mr Stephen News Dept
Flag B
Flag C
Flag D
Flag E
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN DEPENDENT OVERSEAS TERRITORIES
1. At a meeting of the Cabinet Committee GEN 103 on 13 October, Ministers concluded that although they wished to change the present policy on capital punishment in the Dependent Overseas Territories this should not be done while the Bermuda case was under consideration. After the executions of 2 December there were public disturbances in Bermuda and before and after much public and parliamentary comment in Britain and pressure on the Secretary of State. We are now committed to a debate in the House of Commons
on the question of capital punishment in dependent territories, both by the statement made by the Leader of the House on 8 December and by the Secretary of State's statement in the House on 5 December. The Secretary of State has said that he would like to submit a paper to his colleagues in GEN 103 on how the policy should be changed.
2. The Bermuda case has underlined the need to change the present policy quickly before another similar case comes up for consideration. We may face another Bermuda-type situation in March, vis-à-vis the British Virgin Islands. We must also take account of the situation in Hong Kong. The Secretary of State has said that the position there must be held. On one occasion in 1973 the Creech-Jones doctrine was breached there; since then the Governor has automatically commuted all capital sentences to life imprisonment. However, the Governor has often had difficulty in achieving a majority in his Executive Council for commutation. The Bermuda case has been widely discussed in Hong Kong and when next a capital case comes up in which no mitigating circumstances exist, the Governor will find even greater difficulty than in the past in
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