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CDagrc CoBch Wctbm Centre, 175 Dalrymple Street, Greenock

DearCouncillor
am writing to you on behalf of Magic Torch, a local voluntary arts group currently organising a campaign based around Greenock born pirate Captain Kidd.

out just before Christmas.

Magic Torch have recently completed a project based upon the history and folklore of our home town of Greenock, and Captain Kidd featured very prominently in our research. Based upon this research we were given a grant by the National Lottery Heritage Board to produce a book of local folk stories "Tales of the Oak". The book was Ai#iUutea locally and sold

May 23rd 200 I is the three hundredth anniversary of William Kidd's execution, and to commemorate this, we are putting together a campaign to have the unfortunate pirate justly pardoned and his place in history recognised by his home toin. The campaign forms the basis of a Captain Kidd documentary we are producing, with every stage ottne process being
filmed. These are the facts we will be addressing in our campaign.

o o o r o

Kidd is too often glamourised as a pirate and murderer, when in reality he was used as a patsy for the capitalist machinations of the East India Company. Kidd was a pirate sanctioned by the King to raid French ships, and yet documents which would have proved this
disappeared just before his trial.

While Kidd dldkill crewman William Moore. this was in selfdefence in the fuce ofmutiny. Due to his connections with the city of New York, Kidd is also often presented as an A;erican, a misunderstanding no Inverclyder should tolerate. Perhaps the greatest injustice of all was that when Kidd was hanged, the rope actually snapped, yet he was hung for a

secondtine. Kidd's popularity is set to soar over the coming year with oscar winning director Ridley Scott starting work on a new film of his life and times. It is a part of history we perhaps take for ganted over here, but Kidd is hugely popular in America and all over the world. With so many visitors coming through Inverclyde it seems strange that we don't promote this connection as
more of an attraction. It is an example of a tourism niche we could possibly be capitalising on, perhaps by organising a permanent exhibition somewhere, or putting up a statue or a plaque. Kidd is as much a part of our history and heritage as The Comet or James Watt, and we feel it is about time that this was recognised. In many ways, the misunderstood, misrepresented Kidd is symbolic of Inverclyde, and to embrace him as a part of our culture makes perfect sense. We would hope to get Councillor support in a number of areas o With assisting to get press recognition for the campaign. . By assisting with pressure upon relevant local government departments in order to have Kidd commemorated by a staue or plaque. r Perhaps by agreeing to be interviewed for documentary purposes. For now we would hope that you contact you again in due course.

will wear your badge and mention the campaign to as many people

as

possible. We will

Yours sincerely

Paul Bristow

Houre OFFTcE
Justice & Victims Unit 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London SWl H 9AT Switchboard: 020 7273 4000 Direct Line: 020 7273 2777

Ourrefererr",Your reference:

Mr Neil Bristow Magic Torch Westburn Centre 175 Dalrymple Street Greenock

Date:

8 August 2001

Dear Mr Bristow

RE: CAPTAIN WLLIAM KIDD

Thank you for your recent letter addressed to the Home Secretary in which you ask for a posthumous Free Pardon for Captain William Kidd. I have been asked to reply and am sorry for the delay in doing so.

You may find ii helpful if I exptain broadly the policy and convention relating to the Royal Prerogative of Mercy and the particular factors which have a bearing on the granting of a posthumous Free Pardon.
By constitutional convention, the Home Secretary is responsible in England and Wales for recommending to Her Majesty the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy to grant a Free Pardon. However, by long-standing convention, he would generally only do so in respect of offences where it is impracticable to refer the case to the Court of Appeal, and if new evidence had come'to light which demonstrated conclusively that the individual did not commit the offence. The effect of a Free Pardon is that the conviction is disregarded to the extent that, as far as possible, the person is reliel'ed of all penalties. Only the courts have the power to quash a conviction.

The crit6ria that has been used by successive Home Secretaries in considering cases of Free Pardons appear to have been applied since around the turn of the century. These criteria have regard to the constitutional position that it is the courts that decide whether or not a person is guilty of an offence and not the Government.

Against this background, you will appreciate that the grant of a posthumous Free Pardon is extremely rare. ln cases as old as that of William Kidd's, it is particularly difficult to obtain any conclusive evidence that the individual did not commit the offence. William Kidd was of course convicted according to the law at the time, harsh though it seems by modern standards. lf as a result of your research, you would like to submit any detailed

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representations in tMlliam Kidd's case, then the Home Secretary would of course consider them, but on the face of the materialwe have so far segn, \Mlliam Kidd's case does not appeaqto be one where it would be appropriate for the Home Secretary to recommend a posthumous Free Pardon. )uu rlelB raru(Jil.
Yours sincerely

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PaulVallender Justice and Victims Unit

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Criminal Cases Review Commission

Legal Adviser: John Wagstaff

Alpha Tower Street Queensway Suffolk , Birmingham 81 lTT

Neil Bristow Magic Torch

Westburn Centre 175 Dalrymple Street Greenock Scotland

Tel: 0121 633 1800 Fax: 0l2l 633 1804

DX| 715466 Birminghtm4l

.
17 July 2001

Dear Mr Bristow

I was most interested by your letter about Captain William Kidd, which was passed on to this Commission by the Lord Chancellor's Department. I have to say that I'm not quite sure why it came to us, because it.is perfectly clear that you are asking about a pardoq whereas our rolo is to review cases and decide whether they should be referred back to the Cour-t:of,Appeal for a second hearing. For an appeal to procee4 where the convicted person is dead; there has to be someone who can be recognised by the Court as having a "substantial financial or other interest" in the outcome of the appeal "by reason of a farpily or similar relationship with the dead person" (s.44A Criminal Appeal Act 1968). The older a conviction is, the more of an obstacle this presents. The same rule, however, does not apply to pardons.
The people who specialise in considering applications for a pardon are the Justice and Victims Unilat the Home Office, in partioular the Criminal Cases section headed by Miss Anne Reece. you can write to her at Horne Office, Queen Anne's Gate, London, SW1H 9AT, or fax her on 0207 27 3 29 67, or e-mail at'public_enquiqy j vu@homeoffi
ce. gsi.

gov.uk

The official term for a pardon is 'the Royal Prerogative of Mercy'. Lawyers usually present an application in the forrnof a 'petition' to the HM The Queen, sent to the Home Secretary, whose iot it is to advise Her Majesty whether she should exercise her prerogative or not. If the Home Secretary needs a more detailed investigation of a case he can ask us at the CCRC to carry out the investigation and write a report for him (under section 16 Criminal Appeal Act 1995).
IJ is not easy to cbtain a pardon. Back in the early 1980's the Home

Affairs Committee of the

House cf Corniuons described Home Office policy in this way:

"the Free Pardon, as on exceptional act of grace, should be confined as far as possible to those who are morally as well as technically innocent. This 'clean hands' doctrine implies that the Home Secretary must be satisfied before recommending a Free Pardon that in the incident in question the defendant had no intention of committing an offence and did not in fact commit one."

A good discussion of the law about posthumous pardons is contained in a judgment of the English High Court called R. v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex parte Bentley. This may not be easy to get hold of in Scotland, so I'm enclosing a copy for information.
basis for confidence in the success of your campaign, I'm afraid. You have chosen a particularly demanding trail to travel, and you can expect it to take years of hard work. Any petition for the exercise of the Royal Prerogative is an unusual matter. The older the conviction the more compelling the petition will need to be. You will need to take advantage of any measures that could add weight and credibility to your campaign. Before you make your submissions, perhaps you could secure supporting letters from your local council, MSP, MP, MEP, members of the House of Lords, maritime historians, law-of-the-sea experts, local authors and celebrities, and so on. There is a helpful little book by Jill Morrell on how to

I could not give you much

campaign about miscarriages ofjustice, called 'No Smoke Without Fire' - ISBN 0-9527223-l-3 - prrUtirt "a by Bridgewater Four Support Group, 129a Seven Sisters Road, London, N7 7QG. If you c* afford it, the help of an enthusiastic and committed firm of solicitors is a huge benefit, especially if they have experience of such matters. The solicitors in Derek Bentley's case are named at the foot of the first page of the judgment, along with his barristers.

I hope this has given you some notion of where to go from here. I'm sorry I could not be of any
direct assistance. Yours sincerely,

JL

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