TNAG-0837-FCO40-1045-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1981 — Page 17

CONFIDENTIAL

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wish to do so. This in fact happened in 1973 when the then

Secretary of State, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, intervened to prevent an execution in Hong Kong. At the time the House of Commons were considering the question of capital punishment in Northern Ireland, and Sir Alex considered that it would be improper to allow an execution to take place in a British dependency while the debate was in progress. This exception to the normal policy has since been defended on the grounds that Hong Kong differs from the other territories where capital punishment is retained in not having a democratically elected local government (a some- what unconvincing explanation since it is common knowledge that the overwhelming majority of Hong Kong people support the use of capital punishment, even though this consensus may not have been expressed, as in the other territories, through the vote of an elected local assembly).

6. Capital punishment is retained in the following dependent territories (the year of the last execution in each territory is given in brackets):

>

Belize

(1974)

Bermuda (1977)

British Virgin Islands

(1972)

Cayman Islands

(1928)

Hong Kong

(1966)

Montserrat

(1960)

Turks and Caicos Islands

(1946)

7. The appropriateness of the Creech-Jones Doctrine was again called in question at the time of the 1977 case in Bermuda, when two black men were executed for the murder of a white shopkeeper. The Secretary of State came under strong pressure in Parliament and elsewhere (including a concerted campaign by local branches of Amnesty International) to intervene and prevent the executions. It is likely that similar pressure would arise again should another capital case occur in a dependent territory.

CONFIDENTIAL

/Policy