TNAG-0721-FCO40-919-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 24

Registry No

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

Top Secret,

Secret.

Confidential.

Restricted.

Unclassified.

PRIVACY MARKING

CONFIDENTIAL

DRAFT AMENDED LETTER

To:-

All Officers Administering the Government (see attached list)

Type 1 +

From

JAB Stewart Pus

Telephone No. Ext.

Department

......................................................................................In Confidence

DSR11

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE DEPENDENT OVERSEAS TERRITORIES (DOTS)

1.

John

Told

you

in his

движка

You will by now have seen telegram no.

of Herch

telling you that Ministers have decided to defer a decision

in this written on the policy on capital punishment in dependent overseas territories. As you know from/Stewart letter of 27 January, Ministers were asked to decide whether the time had come to

really t

W DOT. abrogate the Creech-Jones doctrine so as to leave the Secretary of State completely free to take into account all

the considerations which seemed to him relevant when making

a recommendation to The Queen on the exercise of the

Prerogative of Mercy. You

m mad word that

↑

2. There are practical objections to an abrogation of

"Creech-Jones". There are also legal objections to using the royal prerogative as a means of suspending or abolishing the death penalty. Capital punishment cannot be abolished for murder in those DOTs which have decided to retain it,

without giving either Parliament in Britain or the local legislatures in the DOTS the opportunity to debate the issue

and to make decisions on it. If it were finally decided by Ministers that capital punishment in the DOTS must be totally abolished, without any exceptions, this could only be done either by Bills in the local legislatures or by a

Bill in the UK Parliament, except, of course, in those

territories in which the law could be altered by Order in

Council. There are considerable difficulties over any

such course.

3. As a result of all these considerations Ministers have

decided to defer a decision. They are, however, concerned

about the possibility of another case, such as the recent

one in Bermuda, where two men were hanged; this caused

CONFIDENTIAL

/...

Dd 108087 400M S&K 1/77