Calls for murder law overhaul
The Law Commission is calling for a wide-ranging review of the law on murder that would look at whether the offence should carry an automatic life sentence.
Many in the legal profession believe that there should be an end to the mandatory life sentence for murder, it says.
If the Government accepts the calls for a review, it would be the first wide-ranging review of the homicide laws since the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment in 1949, which led to the Homicide Act 1957 that restricted the use of capital punishment. A mandatory life sentence to replace capital punishment was introduced in 1965.
Today’s report follows a request from Home Secretary David Blunkett for the Law Commission to review the partial defences of provocation and diminished responsibility for murder, particularly in regard to domestic violence.
It was also asked to consider whether there should be a new partial defence to murder when the defendant, though entitled to use force in self-defence, used excessive force so that defence is not available. Such a defence was attempted by the Norfolk farmer Tony Martin, who was jailed after shooting dead a 16-year-old burglar. The Law Commission said it didn’t believe such a defence should be established.
During its consultations, the Law Commission found significant support for retaining the defence of provocation, though with reform, and abolishing the mandatory life sentence for murder.
It recommends a new partial defence whereby the defendant can show there was “gross provocation”, or fear of serious violence to the defendant or another if the court believes that “a person of ordinary temperament in the circumstances of the defendant might have acted in the same or a similar way.”
Such a defence would not be applicable if the provocation was incited by the defendant, or if there the defendant acted in “considered desire for revenge”.
It also suggests that the law should be reformed to recognise that there are different types of murder. Currently, the mandatory life sentence applies to a wide range of crimes, from a so-called “mercy killing” to a serial killer.
The Law Commission recommends that strong consideration be given to the possibility of categorising murders on the grounds of “aggravation and/or mitigation”.
It emphasised that its recommendations are not a “statutory formula” and that the Parliamentary Counsel should draft any law change.
The Liberal Democrat’s home affairs spokesman, Mark Oaten, welcomed the report. He said: “The current system of life sentences is a mess and the public are fed up of hearing life sentences be given out but not being served.
“The Commission is right to say that all types of murder should not be given the same sentence. Whilst the option of a life sentence should always be available, it is wrong for a victim of domestic violence to receive the same sentence as a multiple killer or someone who has killed a child.
“If public confidence is to be restored in sentencing then we need a system which is transparent, matches the sentence to the crime, and gives victims the justice they deserve.”
