TNAG-0837-FCO40-1045-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1981 — Page 27

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PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL

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R N Posnett Esq

Dependent Territories Adviser

FCO

19 April 1979

DEPENDENT TERRITORIES : CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

1. Thank you very much for your letter of 20 March enclosing the draft paper on capital punishment in the dependent territories. Your very comprehensive draft raises deep and difficult issues on which I would obviously wish to reflect before submitting comment. I wonder, however, if our discussions at Barbados did not also traverse a definitive hoop: that is to say the possibility of a formal despatch from HMG expressing the state of current British law on capital punishment, and that this despatch would suggest to Governments in the dependent territories that, for a trial period of say two or three years, the death penalty might be held in abeyance. As I understood our discussion, the despatch would make the point that a trial period of this sort might help show local Governments whether the death penalty was a deterrent to murder.

2. I wonder if I could beg a view as to the position on this hoop? I hasten to add that I am not by any means sure how an approach of this sort from London would succeed in the BVI. I also realise that the uk position on capital punishment might change under a new Government. If however, our own UK position stood unchanged, then I suppose it is possible that UK action of the sort discussed might make the position more presentable should London later on decide to impose its own view on capital punishment in the dependent territories.

3. As I have said, I have still to ponder the major issue in your letter. The object of this note is really just to clear my mind on a preliminary point.

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J A Davidson