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there were a departure from the Creech-Jones practice, the Secretary of State would still be bound to consider each case as it arose on its merits. and decide in the light of all relevant
circumstances whether or not to advise the Crown to commute. It is very unlikely that the Governor concerned, in deciding that the law should take its course, would have overlooked any relevant circumstane and, even if he had done so, he would speedily review his own decision when that circumstance was brought to his notice.
15. Thus a departure from the Creech-Jones practice should not,
principle, produce any different number of commuted cases thar. would result from a continuance of the present practice. (As respects the Associated States, there is in any event no scope for a new practice since their Governments have been given an under-
taking that the Crown will not be advised to interfere with the local decision concerning the exercise of the delegated 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, from the constitutional
standpoint, 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 penalty 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 decision to introduce legislation had been taken. Such a decision might, however, cause difficulty in
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