TNAG-2084-FCO40-2969-Death-penalty-in-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 62

CONFIDENTIAL

The case for change

5.

a)

The present position is unsatisfactory because:-

In the Islands, public opinion is invariably hostile

to convicted murderers from elsewhere. This

frequently weighs heavily (and unfairly) with Mercy Committees.

b)

c)

d)

We regularly intervene on behalf of individuals sentenced to death in other jurisdictions, eg Iraq (where admittedly we have no confidence in the local

system of justice), Thailand and Malaysia. 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.

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.

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 an execution in Bermuda) and in

1978 (when a sentence was commuted in the British

Virgin Islands) we were obliged to deploy the Armed

Forces to control unrest.

/e)

CONFIDENTIAL