TNAG-1005-FCO40-1254-Capital-punishment-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 88

E.

4.

CONFIDENTIAL

-2-

Capital punishment is retained in 7*British Dependent Terri-

tories (the year of the last execution in each Territory is given

in brackets):

Belize (1981)

Bermuda (1977)

British Virgin Islands (1972)

* 8

with Anguilla naw аут.

5.

Cayman Islands (1928)

Hong Kong (1966)

Montserrat (1960)

Turks and Caicos Islands (1946)

Successive British Governments have always regarded the

question of whether capital punishment should be the penalty

for murder in the Dependent Territories as a matter for local

The exercise of the Crown's Prerogative of Mercy

governments.

has been delegated to Governors, although this does not preclude

the possibility of subsequent petitions either to the Secretary

of State or to The Queen if the Governor decides that the law

should take its course. For all territories except Hong Kong it is

accepted policy that in responding to such petitions (or in

advising The Queen on how she should respond) the Secretary of

State should support the Governor's decision. The only circumstances

in which the Secretary of State might reverse the Governor's decision

would be if he thought that there might otherwise be a miscarriage

of justice: since every effort is made to ensure that no mitigating

factor is overlooked by the Governor, this is extremely unlikely

to arise and in fact there is no such case on record.

6.

HMG's policy is known as the Creech-Jones doctrine, after the

Colonial Secretary who outlined it in December 1947, although in

fact he was doing no more than describing what was even then

already a long-established practice.

CONFIDENTIAL

17.