iTiku!

omfg bad girls club makes me so ashamed to have a vag

naastygal:

but damn those bitches are funny as fuck

‘The case against mandatory life sentence for murder’ - A review.

From what i gathered at the hour long presentation, the terms in the criminal law such as murder,manslaughter & mandatory life sentence are really misunderstood by the majority of the public. The frequent ‘bashing’ by papers such as the daily mail of the lack of justice in relation to sentences people get does not help, but neither does the lack of clarity in the legal definition of these terms. A real general knowledge is needed in this area for the public to gain confidence in the criminal justice system but how does one go about providing such knowledge? sending everyone back to school? or jurors at least? which will waste time & money ..real issues here.

Murder = Cause of death + intent to kill or cause serious injury (S.18 OAPA) + no mitigating factors(defence)

manslaughter = Cause of death + reckless as to the possibility of death or serious injury + no mitigating factors. 

mandatory life sentence? interesting enough, a lot of people hear this and instantly think..the individual spends his whole life in prison ….NO! This actually means he/she will spend a minimum of 6 or 7 years in prison and is then released on license in the community for the rest of his/her life if he is believed to not be a risk to the public any more but he/she will be call back to prison if he/she breaches the terms of his license such as no pub days with some bad people. 

Here is an interesting point:

People hear ‘murder’ and think the worse ..but what about mercy killing which gets the defendant put down for murder rather than manslaughter? a defendant who kills the victim cause he/she could not bare seeing them suffering any more & the victim expressly begs to be killed (Cocker 1989). This defendant is automatically labelled a murderer for mercy killing? basically making him/her as bad as the Yorkshire ripper by the labelling - surely this is outrageous? so there clearly needs to be some isolation from the most serious forms of homicide from the rest cause as we all know..labels stick! 

MANDATORY LIFE SENTENCE

As i have already stated above, this actually means D spends 6 or 7 years behind bars then he is released on license in the community. Surely it will be better if  a fixed discretionary life sentence was adopted so the judge has the ability to send someone to prison for several years for the most heinous of homicide and less for mercy killing?  

A recommendation which i believe is sufficient in comparison to what we currently have?

For the most serious = life without parole - intent to kill + multiple aggravating factors. 

intermediate = life with possiblity of parole - intent to kill or cause serious injury + major aggravation 

lower tier = fixed term of imprisonment - intent to cause serious injury or kill + major mitigating factors 

All three subject to judicial discretion so it is not fixed and for those that are concern about the first one and prisoners who display good behaviour over the years..remember that prisoners sentences gets reviewed after a while.

L’T

b-b-b-bback on ze TUMBLR!