The United Kingdom abolished the death penalty for murder in 1969.[1] However this abolition was not extended to the Crown colonies.[2] The reason for them not being included was due to local favour of retaining the death penalty. Such was the strength of feeling that in 1978, the Royal Navy sent a warship to the British Virgin Islands in preparation for any unrest after the Governor of the British Virgin Islands elected to commute death sentences.[2]
Law
In 1991, the Governor of AnguillaBrian Canty had come under local criticism for commuting the death sentence of a Grenadan prisoner against the advice of the Prerogative of Mercy Committee of the Anguillian Executive Council.[3] He was also due to oversee another planned execution where no recommendation for mercy was made, when a Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister called him saying they were planning to abolish the death penalty in the British Caribbean territories. The Governor requested the order be expedited so he did not have to carry out the execution.[3]Queen Elizabeth II issued the Order-in-Council abolishing the death penalty for murder in the UK's dependent territories of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.[4][5]Bermuda was not included in the order due to having self-governance.[6] They would later abolish the death penalty for murder in 1999 following an act of the Parliament of Bermuda.[6] The Turks and Caicos Islands retained the death penalty for treason and piracy before completely abolishing it in 2002 due to the British government exercising powers to do so under the West Indies Act 1962.[7]
^Croker, Charlie (2010). 8 Out of 10 Brits: Intriguing and Useless Statistics about the World's 79th Largest Nation. Random House. p. 175. ISBN978-0099532866.
^Naldi, Gino J. (1991). "The Prohibition on the Death Penalty in International Law". Netherlands International Law Review. 38 (3). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 373. doi:10.1017/s0165070x00005593. ISSN0165-070X.
