Life sentences: The case for assimilation

Criminal Law Review

Volumn 1996, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 250-254

  Windlesham, Lord ^a  

^a BRASENOSE COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 3042874029     PISSN: 0011135X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (20)

1. Lord Chief Justice of England, 1980-1992. During the year following his retirement Lord Lane chaired an independent committee established by the Prison Reform Trust. Its report, published in December 1993, called for the abolition of the mandatory life sentence for murder and for judicial procedures to govern the setting of tariffs and release decisions: Report of the Committee on the Penalty for Homicide.
2. In July 1994 the Home Affairs Committee had announced its intention to look into two issues related to the crime of murder: the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment and the "year and a day" rule.
3. The year and a day rule is a long-established common law rule extending to other forms of homicide in addition to murder (manslaughter, infanticide, and probably the more serious motoring offences causing death). In its application to murder, it states that a person cannot be convicted of murder where death does not result within a year and a day after the the injury that caused the death. The rule has been subject to review by the Law Commission in 1994-1995, see Criminal Law: The Year and a Day Rule in Homicide, LCCP 136 (1994), and Legislating the Criminal Code: The Year and a Day Rule in Homicide, Law Com. No. 230, H.C. 183 (1995).
4. The year and a day rule is a long-established common law rule extending to other forms of homicide in addition to murder (manslaughter, infanticide, and probably the more serious motoring offences causing death). In its application to murder, it states that a person cannot be convicted of murder where death does not result within a year and a day after the the injury that caused the death. The rule has been subject to review by the Law Commission in 1994-1995, see Criminal Law: The Year and a Day Rule in Homicide, LCCP 136 (1994), and Legislating the Criminal Code: The Year and a Day Rule in Homicide, Law Com. No. 230, H.C. 183 (1995).
5. House of Commons, Home Affairs Committee, Second Report, Murder: The Year and a Day Rule, Session 1994-1995, H.C. 428. It was unusual that publication of the Second Report preceded the First Report. The Minutes of Evidence and Memoranda of Evidence, H.C. 214-II, were also published on May 10, 1995. The Government has accepted the Committee's recommendation and agreed that the rule should be abolished as soon as a suitable legislative opportunity arises. See Government Reply to the Second Report from the Home Affairs Committee, Session 1994-1995, H.C. 428, The "Year and a Day" Rule in Homicide, Cm. 2928 (1995), para. 27.
6. House of Commons, Home Affairs Committee, Second Report, Murder: The Year and a Day Rule, Session 1994-1995, H.C. 428. It was unusual that publication of the Second Report preceded the First Report. The Minutes of Evidence and Memoranda of Evidence, H.C. 214-II, were also published on May 10, 1995. The Government has accepted the Committee's recommendation and agreed that the rule should be abolished as soon as a suitable legislative opportunity arises. See Government Reply to the Second Report from the Home Affairs Committee, Session 1994-1995, H.C. 428, The "Year and a Day" Rule in Homicide, Cm. 2928 (1995), para. 27.
7. House of Commons, Home Affairs Committee, First Report, Murder: The Mandatory Life Sentence, Session 1995-1996, H.C. 111, published on December 13, 1995. 6 para. 102.
8. para. 103.
9. Thynne, Wilson and Gunnell v. The United Kingdom (1991) 13 E.H.R.R. 666.
10. House of Lords, Report of the Select Committee on Murder and Life Imprisonment, H.L. 78, Vol. 1: Report and Appendices; Vol. 2: Oral Evidence Part 1; Vol. 3: Oral Evidence, Part 2 and Written Evidence; Session 1988/9.
11. House of Lords, Report of the Select Committee on Murder and Life Imprisonment, H.L. 78, Vol. 1: Report and Appendices; Vol. 2: Oral Evidence Part 1; Vol. 3: Oral Evidence, Part 2 and Written Evidence; Session 1988/9.
12. House of Lords, Report of the Select Committee on Murder and Life Imprisonment, H.L. 78, Vol. 1: Report and Appendices; Vol. 2: Oral Evidence Part 1; Vol. 3: Oral Evidence, Part 2 and Written Evidence; Session 1988/9.
13. House of Lords, Report of the Select Committee on Murder and Life Imprisonment, H.L. 78, Vol. 1: Report and Appendices; Vol. 2: Oral Evidence Part 1; Vol. 3: Oral Evidence, Part 2 and Written Evidence; Session 1988/9.
14. Angela Rumbold M.P., Parl. Debates, H.C. 193 (6th series), cols. 902-903, June 25, 1991.
15. Until the changes introduced by Leon Brittan in 1983 a joint committee of the Parole Board and Home Office officials scrutinised the dossiers containing details of all life sentence prisoners on an individual basis, either setting a date when the first full review should take place, or recommending that the case should be brought back to the committee in a certain number of years time. The separation into mandatory and discretionary categories dates only from 1983. The present statutory procedure for tariff-setting and release of discretionary sentence prisoners was brought into effect in October 1992.
16. There is also power under section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 for the Secretary of State, having consulted the Parole Board, to release a long-term or life prisoner on licence at any time if he is satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist which justify the prisoner's release on compassionate grounds.
17. In October 1994 the Court of Appeal held that the right to appeal against sentence pursuant to section 9(1) of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 included "any order made by a court when dealing with an offender", and that the relevant part fixed by a judge under section 34 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 amounted to an order. In his judgment, Lord Taylor C.J. said that the provisions of the 1968 Act undoubtedly gave a discretionary life prisoner the right to appeal against the relevant part specified by order of the trial judge: Dalton [1995] 2 Cr.App.R. 340 at p.344.
18. The timing is now subject to case law as a result of the judgment in R. v. (1) Secretary of State for the Home Department, (2) The Parole Board, ex p. Norney, D.C., official transcript C.O. 2092, September 28, 1995.
19. In 1993 release was directed in 20 per cent of cases heard, rising to 27 per cent in 1994. The average term of imprisonment served by discretionary life sentence prisoners released on licence in 1994 was 15 years. Report of the Parole Board for 1994, H.C. 531 (1995), p.13.
20. H.C. 111, op. cit., p.xxxiv.