TNAG-0721-FCO40-919-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 127

A

5. Owing to the varying length of time needed for communications between Colonial Governments

and this country, it would clearly not be possible to frame a single set of rules for universal application

throughout the Colonial Empire. Clearly, too, there may in some territories be local reasons for

departing in certain respects from the Indian model; but in general I consider that these rules form

a most useful model for the development of a similar procedure by Colonial Governments. I am

therefore anxious that in all parts of the Colonial Empire rules should be made based on the Indian

rules setting limits to the time that may be occupied in preparing for a petition for special leave

to appeal, with such local variations as may be necessary to meet local circumstances. Accordingly

. I shall be grateful if you will be good enough to have draft rules prepared on these lines for submission

to me. Having regard to the fact that the prerogative of pardon is delegated to Governors, I am

advised that it is open to you to make such rules.

6. You will no doubt wish at the same time to reassure yourself that there is no unnecessary

delay in the execution of a sentence of death after notification has been received either that special

leave to appeal to His Majesty in Council has been refused or, in cases in which such leave has been

given, that the appeal has failed. Local circumstances may at this stage also cause variations in

practice in different territories. In this country sheriffs are instructed to fix a date for execution

which will allow an interval of not less than fourteen, and not more than eighteen, clear days to elapse

between the determination of the appeal, or of the application for permission to appeal, and the

date of the execution. The day fixed for the execution may be any week-day except Monday. In

the absence of local circumstances rendering a longer delay either inevitable or desirable, it would

seem that no longer interval than eighteen clear days should be permitted in any part of the

Colonial Empire.

1

1

7. I have from time to time been asked whether I can give any general guidance in cases where,

}

owing to delays occurring as a result of appeals to His Majesty in Council, a condemned person must

lie for a long period under sentence of death and humane considerations might therefore suggest

commutation of the sentence. While there must be the fullest sympathy with the motives prompting

a merciful decision in such cases, it is nevertheless important to bear in mind that any convicted

person who chooses to apply for special leave to appeal to His Majesty in Council must do so realising that delay will inevitably result. It would defeat the ends of justice if every sentence of death could be automatically avoided by the mere expedient of petitioning for special leave to appeal; and, apart from exceptional circumstances, the unavoidable delay caused by such petitions would not of itself secm to be a ground for commuting death sentences. But since the prerogative of pardon is delegated by His Majesty to Governors, the question of commutation must always remain one for their discretion in the light of the particular circumstances of each case.

1