Indeterminate Sentences… Again

Extract

A Note on the legality of the mandatory life sentence in (2002) 61 C.L.J. 5 concluded that once the gap between the Government's rhetoric and the reality was recognised, the mandatory life sentence could no longer be justified. After a bit of kicking from the European Court of Human Rights (see Stafford v. UK (2002) 35 E.H.R.R. 32, (2002) 61 C.L.J. 508), the House of Lords has at last recognised that the Home Secretary's involvement in fixing the “tariff” can no longer be justified. Nearly six months after their Lordships issued a declaration that the existing legislative provisions were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, it appears that the Home Office has still not decided what to do. We should expect late amendments to the already dense Criminal Justice Bill 2002, but at the time of writing (April 2003) the proposed amendments have not been published despite the fact that the Bill has reached its Report stage in the House of Commons.