TNAG-0719-FCO40-917-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 79

38

PJ McGrath Esq

21 Station Road AMERSHAM

HP7 OBG Bucks

нка 3867'

RECEIVED IN

11 JAN 1978

DESK OFFIGLA

INDEX

No

---

PA

0.51

KEGISTRY Action Taken

Call L

11 January 1978

I have been asked to reply to your letter of 13 December to the Secretary of State about the recent executions in Bermuda.

The expenditure incurred in connection with these executions was borne by the Bermudian Government, not by the British Government. This includes the costs of the troops who were sent to Bermuda at the request of the Governor.

It is very difficult to know what the majority opinion in Bermuda is on the question of capital punishment; but in 1975, when this matter was last debated in the House of Assembly, a body elected by the entire adult population, a motion to abolish the death penalty was defeated by 25 votes to 9. The petition, which was sent to Her Majesty The Queen, was signed by about 15% of the adult population. Under a policy which has been followed by successive British Governments, the Secretary of State does not advise Her Majesty to intervene in a capital case in a dependent territory except in the rare event that a miscarriage of justice might otherwise take place. In the present cases the Secretary of State considered most carefully all the processes which had led up to the final confirmation of the sentences but could find no such grounds for intervention. He also gave the fullest consideration to matters raised in the petition to The Queen before advising Her Majesty that it should not be accepted.

Following his statement in the House on 5 December, the Secretary of State indicated that he was prepared to review the whole question of capital punishment in the dependent territories if that is Parliament's wish.

WE Quantrill