Related Research Articles
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted criminals are to remain in prison for the rest of their lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or commuted to a fixed term. Crimes that warrant life imprisonment are usually violent and/or dangerous. Examples of crimes that result in life sentences are murder, torture, terrorism, child abuse resulting in death, rape, espionage, treason, drug trafficking, drug possession, human trafficking, severe fraud and financial crimes, aggravated criminal damage, arson, kidnapping, burglary, and robbery, piracy, aircraft hijacking, and genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, severe cases of child pornography, or any three felonies in case of three-strikes law.
Sarah Evelyn Isobel Payne, was the victim of a high-profile abduction and murder in West Sussex, England in July 2000.
John Thomas Straffen was a British serial killer who was the longest-serving prisoner in British history. After killing two young girls in the summer of 1951, he was found unfit to plead at trial and committed to Broadmoor Hospital. During a brief escape in 1952, he killed again. This time, Straffen was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Reprieved because of his mental state, he had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Straffen remained in prison until his death after 55 years, 3 months, and 26 days of incarceration.
Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term of imprisonment for certain crimes, commonly serious or violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are instituted to expedite the sentencing process and limit the possibility of irregularity of outcomes due to judicial discretion. Mandatory sentences are typically given to people who are convicted of certain serious and/or violent crimes, and require a prison sentence. Mandatory sentencing laws vary across nations; they are more prevalent in common law jurisdictions because civil law jurisdictions usually prescribe minimum and maximum sentences for every type of crime in explicit laws.
A habitual offender, repeat offender, or career criminal is a person convicted of a crime who was previously convicted of other crimes. Various state and jurisdictions may have laws targeting habitual offenders, and specifically providing for enhanced or exemplary punishments or other sanctions. They are designed to counter criminal recidivism by physical incapacitation via imprisonment.
In England and Wales, life imprisonment is a sentence that lasts until the death of the prisoner, although in most cases the prisoner will be eligible for early release after a minimum term set by the judge. In exceptional cases a judge may impose a "whole life order", meaning that the offender is never considered for parole, although they may still be released on compassionate grounds at the discretion of the Home Secretary. Whole life orders are usually imposed for aggravated murder, and can only be imposed where the offender was at least 21 years old at the time of the offence being committed.
The Criminal Justice Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide-ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Large portions of the act were repealed and replaced by the Sentencing Act 2020.
Murder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another with the intention to cause either death or serious injury unlawfully. The element of intentionality was originally termed malice aforethought, although it required neither malice nor premeditation. Baker, chapter 14 states that many killings done with a high degree of subjective recklessness were treated as murder from the 12th century right through until the 1974 decision in DPP v Hyam.
Beverley Gail Allitt is an English serial killer who was convicted of murdering four infants, attempting to murder three others, and causing grievous bodily harm to a further six at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincolnshire between February and April 1991. She committed the murders as a State Enrolled Nurse on the hospital's children's ward.
The murder of Hannah Williams was an English case in which a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Hannah Williams, was murdered after going missing during a shopping trip on 21 April 2001. Robert Howard, a convicted sex offender suspected of other murders including in his native Ireland, was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison for her murder.
The murder of Sophie Hook was a widely reported child murder which took place in Llandudno, North Wales, in July 1995.
Daniel Charles Handley was a British child who was abducted from a street near his home and murdered in 1994 by Timothy John Morss and his boyfriend, Brett Tyler. Both men were later sentenced to life imprisonment for abducting, sexually assaulting and murdering Handley. The couple, along with two others, received fifty-year tariffs imposed by Home Secretary David Blunkett in 2002.
Erwin James Monahan is a columnist and convicted murderer who has written for The Guardian since 1998, writing under the name "Erwin James" whilst still incarcerated. He was released in August 2004 having served 20 years of a life sentence. From 2000 he wrote a regular column about prison life entitled A Life Inside, the first column of its kind in the history of British journalism. He continued to write for the national press and became the editor-in-chief of Inside Time, a national newspaper in the UK for people in prison, as well as doing charity work, since his release. While he was in prison he did not receive fees for his articles; instead these were paid to a charity, the Prisoners' Advice Service, which had helped him.
At His Majesty's pleasure is a legal term of art referring to the indeterminate or undetermined length of service of certain appointed officials or the indeterminate sentences of some prisoners. It is based on the proposition that all legitimate authority for government comes from the Crown. Originating in the United Kingdom, it is now used throughout the Commonwealth realms, Lesotho, Eswatini, Brunei and other monarchies. In realms where the monarch is represented by a governor-general, governor or administrator, the phrase may be modified to be at the Governor's pleasure or variations thereof, since the governor-general, governor, lieutenant governor or administrator is the king's personal representative in the country, state or province.
Arthur Hutchinson is an English convicted triple murderer.
Events from 2002 in England
Céline Figard was a French woman who went missing and was murdered during a visit to the United Kingdom in December 1995. She accepted a lift from a lorry driver at the Chieveley services on the M4 in Chieveley, Berkshire, on 19 December, but never arrived at her destination. Following an appeal for information on her whereabouts and police enquiries, her body was discovered on 29 December, at a lay-by on the A449 in Hawford, Worcestershire. A post-mortem examination determined she had been strangled and bludgeoned to death.
R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex parte Venables and Thompson [1997] UKHL 25 is a UK constitutional law case, concerning the exercise of independent judgement in judicial review.
Michael Weir is a British double murderer and serial burglar who was the first person in British history to have been convicted of the same crime twice. In 1999, he was jailed for the murder of 78-year-old war veteran Leonard Harris. Weir's conviction was quashed a year later at the Court of Appeal on a technicality, only for him to be re-convicted in 2019 in a 'double jeopardy' case after new evidence was found. Weir was also convicted in 2019 of the murder of 83-year-old Rose Seferian, who was also killed during a burglary five weeks after Harris, which made additional history as the first time a second murder charge was added to a double jeopardy case. Upon Weir's conviction at the Old Bailey in December 2019, judge Justice McGowan told the jury that they had made "legal history".
References
- ↑ "Lords defy Blunkett on life sentences". BBC News. 25 November 2002. Archived from the original on 25 August 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ↑ "Judgments - Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Respondent) Ex Parte Anderson (Fc) (Appellant)". House of Lords of the British Parliament. 25 November 2002. Archived from the original on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ↑ "New sentencing rules: Key cases". BBC News. 7 May 2003. Retrieved 24 August 2007.