‘Life means life’: that’s the basic reasoning behind British PM Rishi Sunak’s latest proposed legislation, one that would see the ‘worst murderers’ sentenced to life sentences without parole.
Conservative party’s Sunak is trying to reform his ‘soft on crime’ reputation ahead of the upcoming legislative elections, as the Labour opposition – in an unusual move for leftists – tries to position themselves as the ‘law and order’ party.
Reuters reported:
“The British government said on Saturday that judges will be required to impose mandatory ‘whole life orders’ on killers who commit the most horrific types of murder, meaning they will die in prison, under planned legislation.”
These mandatory sentences are to be applied in extremely limited circumstances. The legal footing is to give UK judges greater confidence to hand down the ‘whole life orders’ with a lower risk of having it overturned in the Courts of Appeal.
“For the first time, the orders will also be the default sentence for any sexually motivated murders, [the Government] said.
[…] ‘By bringing in mandatory whole life orders for the heinous criminals who commit the most horrific types of murder, we will make sure they never walk free’, said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.”
Currently, a judge is tasked with specifying the minimum term an offender sentenced to ‘life’ must spend in prison before becoming eligible to apply for parole.
“If released, [by the new legislation], the offender will remain on license for the rest of their life and can be recalled to prison if they are ever thought to be a risk to the public.”
In the UK, a ‘life sentence’ allows the possibility of parole after the ‘minimum term in custody’ has been served.
The Guardian reported:
“Under the proposal, the Ministry of Justice said the law would be changed to place an expectation on judges that they take a whole-life order as their starting point in the worst cases – choosing not to impose one in exceptional circumstances. Ministers said they believed changing the law in that way would mean less chance of such orders being overturned on appeal.
The whole-life order is the most severe penalty available in the country’s criminal justice system. It is usually reserved for serial killers, or those whose crimes include an unusual aggravating feature – such as abusing a position of power to commit murder.”
Under the new proposed order an offender will only be considered for release on the most exceptional of compassionate grounds.
“Rishi Sunak said: ‘I have shared the public’s horror at the cruelty of crimes we have seen recently. People rightly expect that, in the most serious cases, there should be a guarantee that life will mean life. They expect honesty in sentencing’.”
But the Labour Party opposition, pitching itself as the ‘tough-on-crime’ party, accused Sunak’s Conservatives of falling short.
Shadow justice secretary, Steve Reed:
“No one will take any lessons from this soft-on-crime Tory government.[…] Labour is the party of law and order. In government, we will implement tougher sentences for dangerous criminals and build the prison places to put them behind bars.”
Currently, 70 criminals are serving a whole-life order. They will never be considered for release unless there are ‘exceptional compassionate grounds’ to warrant it.
This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
