2025/01/02 by Andrew Novak · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #African studies and sociopolitical issues #Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics #Colonialism, slavery, and trade
paper · doi:10.1080/03086534.2025.2460092
In 1968, the Queen attempted to use her royal prerogative of mercy to prevent the executions of three condemned men in Rhodesia who were convicted of political murders. Though she was still the Rhodesian head of state, her pardons triggered a constitutional crisis in Rhodesia owing to the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) by the white minority regime in 1965. To outrage across the Commonwealth and at the United Nations, Rhodesia carried out its first executions since UDI after Rhodesian courts implicitly validated a new constitutional order that prevented appeals to the Privy Council and denied the Queen’s use of her mercy power. This article considers the political background behind the clash between Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson over the executions and the resulting furour. The 1968 pardon crisis reveals the inherent tension in the prerogative of mercy between a pardon as a royal act of grace and as a bureaucratic political choice. It also underscores the limitations of British anti-death penalty posturing in the years after the country abolished the death penalty at home.