CONFIDENTIAL
been no reason to suppose that they had not taken into
}
1
account all relevant circumstances. On rare occasions, the
Secretary of State has brought considerations to their notice
which might otherwise not have been given due weight (eg the
Lightbourne case in Bermuda in 1959 and the Nairn case in
!
the Bahamas in 1969). But there is no case on record where the
residual prerogative has needed to be exercised because a
Governor has failed to take into account a factor that would
have rendered it unjust for him to let the law take its
course. In recent years, many more death sentences pronounced
in the DOTs have been commuted than have been carried out,
because the Governor and his advisers have thought it right
to exercise olemency. The dates of the last executions in
the seven DOTs that still retain the death penalty are Belize
1974; Bermuda 1943 (apart from the two in 1977), British
Virgin Islands 1972, Cayman Islands 1928, Hong Kong 1966,
Montserrat 1960 and the Turks and Caicos Islands 1946.
8. The position in Hong Kong is anomalous, in that, since
1973 (when the Secretary of State advised the Crown in the
Tsoi case to exercise the residual prerogative in the light
of Parliamentary factors quite unconnected with Hong Kong
or the case itself), the Governor, under pressure from
successive Secretaries of State, has in practice followed a
policy of commuting all capital sentences, even where no
mitigating factors exist. Thus the law has in effect been
suspended by executive action against the wishes of the
Executive Council (which is not opposed to commutation where
relevant grounds exist). Public indignation has to some
extent been allayed by a statement in the Legislative Council
that murderers whose sentences have been commuted will be
imprisoned for life, but this will present difficulties if
they cannot be released where appropriate after serving a
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1
D 10799) 40m 1996 1996 404 953
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