CONFIDENTIAL
The Case for Change
6. The present position is untenable because:
a)
In the Caribbean DTS especially, public opinion is invariably hostile to convicted murderers from off-island. This frequently weighs heavily (and unfairly) with Mercy
Committees.
b) We regularly intervene on behalf of individuals
sentenced to death in other jurisdictions. It would not be easy to explain publicly why a similar intervention in Bermuda or a Caribbean Dependent Territory would be regarded as unconstitutional, and might undermine the authority of
the Governor.
c) The difference in arrangements for the UK and some of our Dependent Territories, on the one hand, and for the Caribbean Dependencies and Bermuda and Hong Kong, on the other, could expose us to criticism on racial grounds.
d) Leaving the decision whether or not to commute in the hands of Governors carries risks for public order and places an unreasonable burden upon them. In 1977 (because of a case in the British Virgin Islands) we were obliged to deploy the Armed Forces to control unrest.
e) As a result of a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (the Soering case), we may find it increasingly difficult to secure the extradition to a Dependent Territory of someone charged with a capital offence unless the British Government is able to give an assurance that the death penalty would not be carried out.
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CONFIDENTIAL
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