3
Secretary of State
CONFIDENTIAL
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE CARIBBEAN DEPENDENT
TERRITORIES
1.
I have discussed this again with officials.
conclusion was that if we are to achieve our objective of
ensuring that there are no more executions within DTs,
there were two options:-
Our
a) make an Order in Council; or
b)
make a statement in Parliament.
The Law Officers have however now written to oppose the second option.
Order in Council
2. The case for this procedure was set out in your own minute of 13 December. You will recall that objections
on the substance (Lord Waddington) and on procedure (the Lord President and the Home Secretary) stayed our hand
when we were about to go down the OIC route following the
Criminal Justice Bill debate in December. The outcome of the debate - a 2 to 1 majority, should be encouragement to return to the charge on the substance, and given that
a new OIC would be free standing and not linked to the
one in December we can overcome the procedural objections
made then.
3. By a mischance, our intentions in December were
conveyed to the Chief Minister of the BVI. He has
CONFIDENTIAL
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