#pardoncaptainkidd

Captain William Kidd and Captain Robert Culliford crossed paths multiple times in their lives. They first met when they worked together as hired privateers in the Caribbean. It was Robert Culliford and many others who stole Captain Kidd’s first ship, the Blessed William, out from under him when he turned pirate. 

Many years later when Captain Kidd was a pirate hunter on the Adventure Galley, he ran into Captain Culliford in St. Mary’s port when he was captain of the Mocha Frigate. Kidd tried to rally his crew to capture Captain Culliford, but he was outnumbered and his crew left him to turn pirate and join Culliford.  The last time these two crossed paths was during Captain Kidd’s trial in London, where Robert Culliford appeared to testify that Kidd was guilty of being a pirate. However, many of the acts that Kidd was charged with for piracy were acts that Culliford had committed himself.

A drafted letter from William Kidd, in which he attempts to dispute his guilt of piracy in the Indian Ocean.

- Analysis of the drafted letter by @Oj_finn on Twitter:

' His language is emotive and he apportions blame widely, making it a powerful document. A précis with some choice quotes, below He claims to have 'taken no ships but as had french passes', i.e. he had the legal cover of a privateer. Yet was "set up" by Richard Coote, governor of New York and Massachusetts, who 'thought it his interest to make me a pirate, whereby he could claim a share of my cargo'. 

We have news to share - The Ministry of Justice has responded with a denial for Captain Kidd’s Royal Prerogative of Mercy application. 

This does NOT mean we are done here! Mr./Ms. E Peck was kind enough to provide an outline when cases like this typically are approved:

“Use of Royal Prerogative powers are subject to the common law duties of fairness and reason and to support effective administration. There are a number of longstanding conventions that I consider when reviewing an application. These are:  

it is impractical for the case to go to court, or all other judicial routes have been exhausted. 

new evidence has come to light which demonstrates conclusively that either no offence was committed or that the defendant did not commit the offence. 

taking into account all the circumstances in the grant of a full pardon, that the person was morally and technically innocent of the crime.”

With this in mind, the Pardon Captain Kidd movement can confidently state that new evidence HAS indeed come to light proving Captain Kidd did not commit piracy. 

Additionally, E Peck was helpful in providing their thoughts on this movement and suggestions of other revenues we can take:

“I have considered whether to recommend to the Secretary of State that he exercise his powers under section 16 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to refer your application on behalf of Captain Kidd for an exercise of the RPM to the CCRC. However, I have not found a compelling reason to make such a recommendation and I am mindful of the Commission’s finite resources which in my view are better utilised in considering current cases rather than a case which concluded 300 years ago and where there appears to be no public interest in the Commission devoting its limited resource investigating it at the expense of current cases.” “Until the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has been approached and made a finding on Captain Kidd’s case, the full range of judicial routes cannot be held to have been exhausted. It is convention that no recommendation of RPM will be made whilst there remains a judicial route available.”

This tells us that RPM does not consider this movement worth their time and resources. However, with both the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the Secretary of State mentioned, we think gathering more general interest and precise delivery of the new evidence for Captain Kidd’s innocence is still a hopeful revenue. Additionally, the Law Centres Network was recommended as an outlet to us as well.

SO WHAT’S NEXT? The Pardon Captain Kidd movement has more letters to submit - to the Secretary of State and to members of the Law Centres Network. Follow us here for more updates on this!

HOW CAN YOU HELP? We are once again requesting anyone interested in showing their backing and interest in this movement to please submit their full names for letters to these revenues. You can do so by filling out our contact form on our site here.

January 22nd is Captain William Kidd’s birthday. We are taking some time today to toast cheers to the Captain as the pardon movement continues its next course of action!

To celebrate, a pork roast will be made tonight in his honor, just like last year. Roasted pork was a popular good choice for parties in the 17th century for the American colonies, and was something Kidd feasted on many times during his days. A particular cocktail inspired by the 'English Lemonade' will also be prepared with the pork roast - we like to keep things traditional! There will be no amber essence (ambergris) in this beverage, but a musky and floral substitute will be included nonetheless.