TNAG-2084-FCO40-2969-Death-penalty-in-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 38

BACKGROUND

1.

The abolition of capital punishment in the UK in 1965 was followed by its de facto abolition in Hong Kong. The

last execution there was in November 1966. Although the death penalty remains on the statute book, and Hong Kong courts continue to impose it for serious crimes such as

murder, in practice all such sentences are commuted by the Governor to terms varying between 8 years and life. The

decision to commute is the Governor's alone, but he takes

ExCo's advice in each case on the length of the prison term.

2. Public opinion in Hong Kong has always been strongly in favour of retaining the death penalty, but the

administrative arrangement described above has come to be

regarded as an acceptable way of reconciling the demands of

public opinion in Hong Kong and the repeatedly expressed will of the British Parliament, which is ultimately

responsible for what happens in Hong Kong, and which supports abolition.

3.

This administrative arrangement has in the past been

justified by the fact that Hong Kong did not have an elected

legislature through which local public opinion could be

incontrovertibly and democratically expressed. The views of the British Parliament therefore carried greater weight. But as LegCo becomes a body of elected rather than appointed

members, that argument becomes increasingly untenable.

4.

The only occasion since 1966 on which this arrangement has been seriously challenged so far was in 1973 when a particularly grisly murder so outraged Hong Kong opinion

that the Governor felt unable to recommend commutation of

the death sentence. A plea for clemency was addressed to

the Secretary of State and was granted on political grounds.

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