TNAG-0721-FCO40-919-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 50

CONFIDENT.

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vernments have been given an undertaking that the Crown will not be advised to interfere with the local

decision concerning the exercise of the delegate prerogative of mercy.) It may be argued that a departure from the Creech-Jones practice would enable the Secretary of State to take into account, when considering each case, the

fact that the death penalty for murder has been abolished in the United Kingdom and any views expressed in the

House of Commons or elsewhere about the desirability of

abolishing it in the DOTS. But neither the fact of abolition

in the United Kingdom nor abolitionist views expressed in the House of Commons or elsewhere could be regarded as a relevant circumstance that would justify a policy of invariable

commutation of every death sentence passed in the DOTS

that the Governor has not himself felt able to commute.

16. It follows that the only proper and effective method

of securing the abolition or suspension of the death

penalty for murder in those DOTS under whose law it is

still maintained is by means of legislation.

17. If legislation to abolish or suspend the death penalt

in the DOTS concerned were pending, this would provide

the Governors with an additional and powerful ground for

commutation, and therefore in practice no further

executions would be likely to take place once the decisio

to introduce legislation had been taken.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

10 March 1978

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CONFIDENTIAL

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