Life

smithdown · July 9, 2013

Whole-life jail sentences without any prospect of release amount to inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners, the European court of human rights (ECHR) has ruled.

The landmark judgment will set Strasbourg's judges on a fresh collision course with the UK government but does mean that any of the applicants – the convicted killers Jeremy Bamber, Peter Moore and Douglas Vintner – are likely to be released soon.

In its decision, the ECHR said there had been a violation of Article 3 of the European convention on human rights, which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment.

The judgment said: "The court found in particular that, for a life sentence to remain compatible with Article 3 there had to be both a possibility of release and a possibility of review."

The court emphasised, however, that "the finding of a violation in the applicants' cases should not be understood as giving them any prospect of imminent release. Whether or not they should be released would depend, for example, on whether there were still legitimate penological grounds for their continued detention and whether they should continue to be detained on grounds of dangerousness. These questions were not in issue."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jul/09/whole-life-jail-sentences-without-review-breach-human-rights

what say the Genny-heads? is it worth all the agg if it's a purely theoretical possibility of review/release, eg like with the Breivik case?

D.Boon · July 9, 2013

This post is not viewable to guests.