JANABC
MR BEAMISH
MR LENNOX - BOYD
HKB 380/1
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A9991
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CONFIDENTIAL
FROM: RS GORHAM, WIAD DATE: 11 JANUARY 1991
CC:
MR MCLAREN
SIR A WATTS
MR CHAMBERLAIN
HKD UND
COTY
MR LIDINGTON
MR FRASER
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
1. At Mr Lennox-Boyd's meeting on 7 January, he commissioned a draft minute to the Secretary of State to set out the alternative ways of proceeding. I submit a draft.
2.
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On the same day Mr Chamberlain wrote to the Law Officers formally requesting their advice on the second option set out in the draft minute. In their reply received today, the Law Officers endorsed the 1977 advice given to the Labour administration that constitutional considerations indicate legislation is the proper method for securing the abolition of the death penalty in the Dependent Territories, and that we should not seek a discontinuance of executions by oblique means.
3. It is for Ministers to decide whether the Law Officers should be given such an absolute veto over our policy. While the advice from the Attorney General's Chambers confirms the policy line which the Department has submitted over the last few months, it should not necessarily be taken as the final word. I think it right therefore that the Secretary of State should see for himself the way in which we have contrived to find an honourable and politically sensitive answer to this intractable question. For radical alterations to the prepared on the optimistic Officers would let us have our way.
that reason I have not made attached draft, which had been assumption that the Law
Rita Gule
R S Gorham
CONFIDENTIAL
3
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