TNAG-0724-FCO40-922-Policy-on-use-of-Prerogative-of-Mercy-1978 — Page 46

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CONFIDENTIAL

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The Secretary of State said that it was likely that there would be a debate in the House of Commons on the capital punishment issue fairly soon and he referred to the DOP paper which he was circulating to colleagues. He hoped that it might be possible to pass a resolution in the House of Commons which would allow the Creech Jones formula to be abandoned but he thought there was little or no chance of primary legislation passing. capital punishment as such could not be abolished without legislation the only way forward was, by use of the Secretary of State's discretionary power. The Secretary of State repeated this point on a number of different occasions during the discussion, that it was very difficult to assess opinion in the House of Commons and he could give no firm picture of the way in which discussion in the House would go. Sir Peter Ramsbotham referred to the Joint Select Committee (see paragraph 6 of his paper: "Bermuda: The Year Ahead"). He thought that there would

be an adverse reaction if it were to turn out that the work which the Select Committee would be putting in to producing recommendations would be wasted because the Government in the United Kingdom would have decided to overrule any recommendation for capital punishment. Dr Owen said that in his view the Secretary of State would need to consider all the relevant circumstances and that should not be interpreted to mean that capital punishment would be waived in all cases. Sir Peter Ramsbotham said that, at least so far as Bermuda was concerned, he thought that there was virtually no risk that another capital case would occur during the period of discussion in the UK, Sir Peter Ramsbotham emphasised that in any debate in the House every word in Hansard would be carefully studied; from the Bermudian point of view it would be advantageous if any statement of Government views was put in a general and not in a Bermudian context. He went on to suggest that he might, with the agreement of Government and Opposition in Bermuda, seek to change the constitution of Bermuda in such a way that in future the Governor would not consult but take the advice of the Prerogative of Mercy Committee. The Governor would then be bound by the Committee's views though, if the Creech Jones formula had been abandoned, he could then be overruled by the Secretary of State. He thought that this would have advantages for him locally. It would help him not to be seen to be the man responsible for the deaths of blacks. The Secretary of State thought that this might be a way of avoiding conflict between the Governor and the Secretary of State and it would be easier for the Secretary of State to take the "flak" if the ultimate decision were to go against the views of the local government. He was not therefore averse to this

/suggestion

CONFIDENTIAL